Severus' Rose Year 7
by WrittenWord1
Summary: We've reached the final year in the Severus' Rose series!
1. Getting Ready

The pain in Severus Snape's forearm grew over the course of the evening. Elizabeth chattered through dinner, and he half-listened, focused on keeping the look of pain off his face. By his after-dinner cup of tea, it was clear that no pain-killing potion was going to ease his suffering.

"I'm going to Hermione's, okay?" Elizabeth danced down the stairs, pulling her hair into a ponytail. "I'll be back tomorrow afternoon."

"Is that a request?" Severus asked shortly, pressing his hand against his shirt-covered forearm in an attempt to stop the ache.

"I asked if it was okay," Elizabeth looked at him. "What's with you?"

"Pardon me?" Severus pressed his lips together. "Have you forgotten who you're speaking to? Just because you'll be of age in a week—

"Dad?" Elizabeth stepped forward and put her hand over where the Dark Mark writhed beneath his shirt fabric. She met his eyes in a wordless question.

Severus softened. "It's nothing," he said, shaking his head. "Go on. I'll see you tomorrow. Before three, please, we need to go to Diagon Alley."

Elizabeth considered, once again, reminding him that she wasn't going back to school, however it seemed like a bad time to have a fight. She desperately needed to see Hermione. "You're alright?" She looked at his arm again.

"Perfectly," Severus lied. "He's been calling frequently, you know that."

Elizabeth nodded. "Bye, then," she bent down and kissed his cheek, then disappeared into the floo.

*S*S*

Severus felt as if the blood boiled beneath his skin. His whole body grew hot, and the skin on his face developed the tight feeling of fever. With the fever came visions, and with the visions came messages.

_Come now, Severus. You can't keep up this nonsense forever. _

_Your allegiance is not with the Light. You've shown that._

_Come serve at my right hand, Severus. _

And then, one he could not ignore.

_Your daughter comes of age in 7 days, Severus. Every moment you remain my enemy, you shorten her life._

He'd been to Malfoy Manor perhaps a hundred times over the years. But there was something… darker about it that night.

"Ah," came a high, clear voice from the dining room. "Snape. How wonderful you've chosen to join us. I'd say you'd seen the light, but we all know that the light is not worth seeing."

The speaker was seated directly in front of the fireplace, so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette. As Severus moved further into the room, however, the face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical. He was so fale he seemed to emit a pearly glow.

"Sit here," Voldemort indicated the seat on his immediate right. "We were just discussing the possibility that this prophecy concerning my demise is quite incorrect. Thoughts?"

Severus sat gingerly, relishing for just a moment that his arm was no longer being tortured. "I think that it is unlikely that a child could defeat you, My Lord."

That was certainly true, if not what he wished. It was, indeed, unlikely that Elizabeth would be able to kill a man who had escaped the finest Aurors in the world.

"That's what I think as well. Especially one of such questionable blood status." Voldemort's mouth twisted into something of a smile. "Just to be sure, we'll need to watch the girl quite carefully. However, I am willing to spare her life. If you are willing to do something for me." His eyes flashed. "I will take your silence as assent."

Voldemort slowly drummed his fingertips on the table. "Since you've moved yourself into a position of power among our young witches and wizards, I am putting you in charge of assuring that we are only educating the right sort. With the truth, of course." He looked up at the ceiling, were a woman was suspended, rotating silently. "You'll need to hire a new Muggle Studies professor," Voldemort said sardonically. "Perhaps one that doesn't spout Mudblood-loving nonsense."

"Of course, My Lord," Severus said, wanting to cast a killing curse, right then and there. Nevermind that the others would kill him before his wand-hand lowered. Nevermind that he'd certainly be leaving his child fatherless a week before her seventeenth birthday.

It was his logic that saved the moment. The knowledge that Voldemort had hidden pieces of his soul. Killing him would only serve as a temporary fix. Still, temporary was still alluring n this situation.

"It seems," Voldemort continued, "that despite our infiltration of the Ministry, they've seen fit to put a track on my wand. I shall need to borrow one from one of you. I dislike being monitored."

There was only silence. The people around the table would have sooner provided a limb than their wand.

"No volunteers?" Voldemort said smoothly. "Let's see… Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore."

"My Lord?" Lucius' voice was hoarse.

"Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand."

Severus was not unamused by Lucius' squirming. However, his attention was mainly focused on Draco. The boy's swagger was obviously degraded, even his posture in his chair was begging to be ignored. Severus wasn't sure if he'd ever seen Draco Malfoy attempting to avoid the spotlight.

Lucius passed his wand to his son, who passed it to Severus, who handed it to Voldemort.

"What is it?" The Dark Lord examined the wand.

"Elm, My Lord."

"And the core?"

"Dragon—" Malfoy swallowed. "Dragon heartstring."

"Good," Voldemort nodded. "I can't help but notice, Lucius, that you seem less than pleased to give me this gift. Is the freedom of you and your son not worth it? Is it my presence in your home that displeases you?"

"Of course not, My Lord!"

"Such lies, Lucius," Voldemort sneered. "You claim to desire my rise to power, but you look discontented as it is happening."

"My Lord—

"Your son survives on a technicality," Voldemort went on. "While you lie about your allegiance, Severus proved his. Saving your son from dirtying his hands, I suppose."

"It is an honor to have you here," Belltarix spoke up from beside her sister. "There can be no higher pleasure."

"No higher pleasure," Voldemort tilted his head slightly. "Even compared with the happy event, I hear, has taken pace in your family this week?"

Bellatrix stared at him, evidently confused. "I don't know what you mean, my Lord."

"I'm talking about your niece, Bellatrix. And yours, Lucius and Narcissa. She has just married the werewolf, Remus Lupin."

"She is no niece of ours, My Lord," Bellatrix spat. "Narcissa and I have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries."

Voldemort smiled coldly. "Remus Lupin is, at least, a half-blood," he said, as if laying a trap. "Are you not pleased with her choice?"

"We can only allow the purest blood to remain, my Lord. May the cubs be born Squibs." Bellatrix hissed.

Voldemort emitted a cruel laugh. "What do you have to say about that, Severus? I hear that you were a member of the groom's party?"

"Lupin is a valuable ally, my Lord," Severus said smoothly. "A formidable fighting force during the full moon."

"I'm sure," Voldemort nodded once. "Perhaps you should entice him to join us. His blood-status could be overlooked. As long as he would agree not to produce more mudbloods."

"I'm sure that is worth consideration, My Lord." Severus felt a heavy blacknes that started in his stomach and oozed, like a poisonous sludge through his veins. It was how he always felt in the presence of this man. The soul-sucking feeling that he was giving everything away with no promise of payoff.

*S*S*

"Hello, darling," Mrs. Granger said when Elizabeth appeared in the floo.

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to it," Mr. Granger said from the sofa. "People stepping out of the fireplace!"

"It's not a fireplace, dear. It's a _floo_." Mrs. Granger said. "It's brilliant, really."

"Thank you for having me," Elizabeth said, hoping not to get in a conversation about how it felt to be a witch.

"Of course, of course," Mrs. Granger beckoned her further into the house. "Hermione is upstairs with Ron and one of his brothers. You go on up, and I'll bring you some tea in a bit."

Elizabeth took the stairs two at a time. The Granger's rec room was at the top of the stairs. Hermione was sitting on the floor in front of a large pile of books. Ron and Fred were leaning against the billiard table.

"Oh good," Ron said when he saw her. "Tell Hermione she can't take every book in her library."

"Anything could be useful," Hermione argued. "Anything is possible."

"Listen," Elizabeth started. "I know you said after Dumbledore's funeral that you wanted to come with me."

"Here she goes," Hermione said to Ron, rolling her eyes.

"We knew she would," Ron answered, turning to his brother. "Fred, control your woman, would you?"

"If only I could," Fred laughed.

"You know, I think I will take _Hogwarts, A History_." Hermione mused aloud. "Even if we aren't going back there, I'd feel wrong if I didn't have it with—

"Listen!" Elizabeth tried again.

"No, Betsy, you listen," Fred stepped in. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago. Years ago, really."

"But—

"Shut up," Ron advised.

"Are you sure you've thought this through?" Elizabeth persisted.

"Let's see," Hermione slammed _Travels with Trolls_ onto the discard pile with an annoyed look. "I've been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic. I've also planned to modify my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which hopefully they will do, making it more difficult for Voldemort to find them. assuming I survive this, I'll find them and lift the enchantment. If I don't… well, I hope the charm is good enough to keep them safe and happy. They won't remember they have a daughter, or know anything about our world." She looked at Elizabeth, tears in her eyes. "So we're sure, thanks."

"Hermione, I'm sorry—

"Didn't you realize that we knew perfectly well what might happen if we come with you? Well, we do."

Elizabeth bit her lip, and Fred stepped up behind her wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back against him. He shared a look with Ron, who seemed to understand, and handed Hermione another stack of books, distracting her out of her tirade.

"We're coming," Fred said gently, "Every step of the way."

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, watching Hermione sort her books, and then turned in Fred's arms to rest her forehead in his neck. "I love all of you."

"Not the same way, hopefully," Ron said affably. "Though I'm better looking than him."

"In your dreams, little brother." Elizabeth felt Fred's voice rumble through his throat.

"Dad, Fred, and George transformed a ghoul to pretend to be me," Ron said. "Riddled with Spattergroit, so anyone inquiring won't want to get too close."

"People will assume I went with my parents," Hermione said, her voice stronger. "Lots of Muggleborns are going into hiding."

"And I have a built-in body double," Fred said. "George has always wanted to be me, and now he'll have his chance."

"So your mum and dad are in on this plan?" Elizabeth turned to look at Ron.

"Well, Mum… you know her. She won't accept we're going till we've gone," Ron watched Hermione as she sorted another pile.

"What we really need to decide," said Hermione, "is where we're going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Godric's Hollow first, Elizabeth, and I understand why, but…well… shouldn't we make the Horcruxes our priority?"

"If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, I'd agree with you," Elizabeth said.

"Don't you think there's a possibility that Voldemort's keeping a watch on Godric's Hollow? He might expect you to go back and visit your mum's grave once you're free to go."

"You've been there before," Ron said, sitting back on his heels. "It's not really the time for sight-seeing now, is it?"

"I haven't," Elizabeth said quietly. "Dad won't go there. And I'm not sight-seeing. I think there's something there."

"Alright, but we have to have a plan," Ron said. "Regulus said he destroyed the real locket, right?"

"He intended to," Elizabeth said. "That's what the note said."

"Well, what if he did finish it off?" Ron looked excited. "It'd be one less for us to do!"

"Yes, but we're still going to have to try and trace the real locket, aren't we?" said Hermione, "to find out whether or not it's destroyed."

"It has to be at Headquarters," Elizabeth said. "But I haven't been able to go there."

"Once we get hold of it, how do you destroy a Horcrux?" Fred asked.

"Well," Hermione frowned. "I've been researching that."

"How?" Elizabeth tilted her head in confusion. "I didn't think there were any books on Horcruxes in the library?"

"There's weren't," Hermione said uncomfortably. "Dumbledore removed them all, but he… he didn't destroy them."

Ron sat up straight, wide-eyed.

"How in the name of Merlin's pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?"

"It… it wasn't stealing!" Hermione defended. She looked from Elizabeth to Ron, to Fred, who was badly suppressing laughter. "They were still library books, even if Dumbledore had taken them off the shelves. Anyway, if he really didn't want anyone to get them, I'm sure he would have made it much harder to—

"Get to the point!" said Ron.

"I did a Summoning Charm," Hermione said in a small voice. "I can't imagine Dumbledore would have been angry, we're going to use the information to do what he wanted—

"Can you hear us complaining?" Fred interrupted. "Your new life of crime is fine with us. So how do you destroy them?"

"Well, Elizabeth kind of already showed us one way," Hermione said.

"Stabbing it with a basilisk fang?" Elizabeth said.

"Right, well, it's good we've got loads of those lying around," Ron said sarcastically.

"It doesn't have to be a basilisk fang," Hermione explained. "It has to be something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself. Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry around with you. That's a problem we're going to have to solve though, because ripping, smashing a Horcrux won't do the trick. You've got to put it beyond magical repair."

"Hang on," Fred said suddenly. "The bit of soul in the diary was possessing Ginny, wasn't it? How does that work, then?"

"You're in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux," Hermione explained. "Then the soul bit inside can flit in and out."

"I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring," Elizabeth said aloud. "I should have asked him—

"I'm still hung up on the possession part," Fred interrupted. "I'm not keen to go through that again."

"We'll be careful," Elizabeth assured.

"You see, you can't just say that and have nothing happen," Fred argued, but seemed to accept that there was nothing that could be said to assuage his fears.

"Anyway," Hermione said. "We need to work out that bit. So if anyone has any bright ideas, feel free to share them."

"I have a bright idea," Elizabeth looked at Fred. "My dad thinks I'm spending the night here."

"You can," Hermione said. "I'll only have to explain to Mum a dozen or so times that you're still underage for another week, and so you can't do tricks for her."

"As much fun as that sounds," Elizabeth grinned at Fred. "I was hoping that I'd have another offer."

"Hmm," Fred said, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"You might ask if I'm willing to cover for you," Hermione said.

"Well, I thought since you'd started stealing books," Elizabeth teased.

"Get out," Hermione rolled her eyes and waved her hand. "Leave me to do all the work, won't you?"

"We'll spend loads of time thinking about it," Elizabeth assured, heading out the door. "All night, really."

*S*S*

"Where's George?" Elizabeth asked, as Fred carried her through the door of his apartment, his arms around her waist.

"Angelina's," Fred said, moving his mouth from hers only long enough to answer the question. "All night."

"Whatever shall we do?" Elizabeth giggled as he tossed her on the bed.

"I have some excellent ideas," Fred grinned, pouncing on her.

"Bill's wedding in a couple of weeks," Elizabeth said conversationally, as Fred worked his way up her neck.

"Uhuh," Fred affirmed, unbuttoning her shirt.

"I'm not sure whether to wear my hair up or down," Elizabeth said, her hands drifting to his belt buckle.

"Either way," Fred said, flipping them over so Elizabeth was straddling his hips.

"Ginny thinks—

"Betsy," Fred interrupted. "I'm doing some of my best work here. Can we not talk about my sister?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Okay. No talking."

*S*S*

"After this one," Elizabeth said later, as they lay on the bed, her head on Fred's chest. "No more weddings."

Fred laughed. "It still might not happen. Fleur could come to her senses."

"Don't be mean," Elizabeth nudged him. "It's just so stressful. Tonks and Remus didn't plan at all. I had to decorate through Hermione because I didn't want to risk the underage magic."

"The trace isn't apparently as precise as we're told as children," Fred agreed. "But it's not worth risking. My mum will be doing everything for this one, so you just have to show up and be beautiful. Charlie's the best man, so I have absolutely no responsibilities."

"Well, it'll be bigger than Tonks and Remus'," Elizabeth flopped back on the bed. "Tonks' mum and dad, and then Dad and I. Sorriest wedding party in the world."

"It sounds nice," Fred lay down beside her. "Quiet, which this one won't be. However, guess what is the night before?"

"Emm… a carnival," Elizabeth smiled.

"Well, a carnival seems a bit juvenile for a coming-of-age party, but I suppose."

Elizabeth shook her head. "We can't have a party."

"Why the hell not?" Fred propped himself on one elbow.

Elizabeth sighed. "What are we celebrating? That I'm old enough to be a serious threat to Voldemort? That we can leave to search for pieces of a murder's soul at any time?" She shrugged. "I don't want to rub Dad's face in it."

"Mum is not going to like that," Fred warned. "She already thinks your dad doesn't do anything nice for you."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Dad thinks your mum is crazy. Besides, it's the day before the wedding. She doesn't need the extra fuss."

"You know how we need something to destroy a Horcrux?"

Elizabeth nodded, confused by the change in conversation.

"Well, we can just bring them to my mum and then tell her you don't want a party. The Horcrux will just incinerate."

Elizabeth laughed. "Let's call that plan B."

*S*S*

It was three o'clock in the morning when Elizabeth was awakened by Severus' voice, coming from his silver doe standing beside the bed. "Hatchling. Come home."

Elizabeth was overwhelmed by appreciation that a Patronus didn't show the sender the location of its recipient. "Fred," she shook his shoulder.

"I love you too," he murmured, clearly still asleep.

"Fred," Elizabeth shook him again. "I have to go."

"Go where?" Fred finally opened his eyes.

"Home," Elizabeth kissed his face. "Go back to sleep."

"Why?" Fred rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"Not sure, Dad just sent his patronus," Elizabeth threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "Hopefully, he didn't try to firecall the Grangers first." She leaned down to kiss him on more time, and then took floo powder from the talking bowl on the mantle.

"Have a nice trip, see you next fall!" The bowl chirped.

Elizabeth stepped into the flames and let the floo whisk her toward Spinner's End.

When she arrived, Severus was standing in the middle of the living room. As soon as she stepped out of the fireplace, he took three steps and wrapped her tightly in his arms.

"Dad?" She wriggled a bit. "What's wrong?"

Severus cleared his throat. "There's going to be increased attacks on Muggle-borns," he said quietly. "The Order is going tomorrow to secure the Granger's house, but I wanted you home tonight."

"Hermione is sending her parents away," Elizabeth said.

"Don't tell me where," Severus shook his head. "The sooner she can do so, the better. Then she should stay here or with the Weasleys."

"She's going to the Burrow for the wedding and staying there," Elizabeth nodded.

"Good then," Severus squeezed her shoulders again. "I'm sure I woke you. Go to bed."

Elizabeth started to go upstairs, then paused. She turned to look at him. "Your arm doesn't hurt?"

Severus looked at her impassively. "No."

"Dad…" Elizabeth bit her lip.

"Go to bed," Severus said firmly.

Elizabeth sighed. "You'll be careful?"

Severus prodded her toward the stairs. "I'm always careful."


	2. To the Burrow

There was a voice, coming from a shadowy figure in front of a roaring fireplace. A blonde man knelt at the figure's feet.

"Your son failed in his mission, Lucius," the figure hissed. "I do not tolerate failure among my soldiers."

"Please, My Lord," the man Elizabeth only then recognized as Lucius Malfoy pleaded. He was gaunt, and all arrogance had left his bowing form. "Dumbledore is dead."

"My thanks to Severus for that," Voldemort said airily. "I would have killed the boy tonight, but I had other things to attend to. And now you come for what? To beg me to forgive such gross incompetence? I would think that you would be as disgusted by his weakness as I am."

"It's Snape," Lucius pleaded. "He taught Draco to be weak-willed—

"You blame another man for your son's faults?" Voldemort sneered. "It appears that weakness runs in the family."

"Please, My Lord. Spare him. Give him another chance."

"I don't have time for second chances." Voldemort tapped a long finger against what would have been his lips. "However, I am busy. And I desire proof of your continued allegiance."

"Anything, My Lord."

"Kill your son."

*S*S*

Elizabeth opened her eyes and looked at the clock. Five in the morning. She'd been asleep barely more than an hour. She lay in bed for a moment, listening to the sounds of the house. There were the general creaks, and then the unmistakable sound of her father's study door. The hinges creaked, but Severus had never righted the problem. He said it was a good security device with a nosy child in the house.

Not that she was ever barred from his study. The top row of books, yes, but not the study itself. When she was younger, she liked to sit in his desk chair and pretend that she was doing important work. He'd never been cross, finding her there. He merely locked the drawer that he used for documents he didn't want her to handle.

Elizabeth slipped on her slippers and went down the stairs. As she expected, the door to the study was open. Severus was sitting at his desk, his elbows on the writing surface, his head in his hands. She leaned against the doorframe and knocked softly. "Did you sleep at all?"

"I could ask you the same question," Severus looked up and dropped his arms to the desk. "What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth stepped into the room.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "You are awake at," he looked at his watch, "quarter past five on holiday. And you have that look about you."

"What look?"

"You've seen something," Severus said decidedly. "Out with it, then."

"Voldemort wants Lucius to kill Draco. To prove his allegiance."

"Interesting."

"What's interesting about it?" Elizabeth looked at him incredulously.

"You want me to save him?"

"No," Elizabeth shook her head. "He led Death Eaters into Hogwarts. You nearly died—

"But you used his first name," Severus said, examining her face. "You don't do that often. In fact, you used both of their first names."

"Because the sentence was clearer that way, that's all. I couldn't very well say 'Voldemort wants Malfoy to kill Malfoy', could I?"

"If you insist."

"You don't seem as concerned about this as I thought you'd be," Elizabeth looked at him.

Severus rubbed a hand over his face. "I have only the energy needed to assure that you survive this war, Elizabeth. It is during times like these that I am glad that I only have one child."

"I'm taking your energy then?" Elizabeth asked sourly.

Severus sighed and pushed his chair back from the desk, opening his arms. "Come here."

"Dad, I'm nearly of age."

"I'm aware of how old you are. I was there were you were negative nine months."

"Gross." Elizabeth made a gagging noise.

"Indeed," Severus smirked. "Come here, please."

Elizabeth resignedly went around the desk and sat on the arm of his large leather chair.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Honestly. It's like you think you'll break me." He pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around her. "You do take my energy, Hatchling. Because I love you. Because we are both in a perilous position. We're holding off dragons with a chair, Rosie. I can only balance you and me right now. I don't have the power to worry about Draco, no matter how much it breaks my heart."

Elizabeth put one arm around his shoulders. "You haven't called me Rosie in a long time."

"I haven't had a wave of such ridiculous sentimentality in a long time," Severus chuckled. "I think your impending birthday has made me soft."

"You're always soft," Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "At least with me. Wouldn't kill you to be that way with other people, you know."

"I think it might," Severus disagreed.

Elizabeth sobered. "Meetings might kill you."

"I told Albus that, but he'd never listen. Staff meetings every week, whether we had anything to talk about or not. Something that won't happen next year, I assure you."

"Dad." Elizabeth looked at him meaningfully. "You _know_ what I'm talking about."

"I'm keeping us alive," Severus said firmly. "It may not be ideal, but it is what we have. It will keep Hogwarts open another year, though our… handling of Muggleborns will have to be different this year. I'd like to speak to Miss Granger about it, actually."

"Dad," Elizabeth sighed. "I need you to listen to me. Really listen to me."

Severus met her eyes and nodded once. "Go ahead."

"Hermione, Ron, and I are not going to be at school this year. We're going out to destroy the Horcruxes that are left. I know that scares you. I know you're upset. And it's okay. But you have to know that I'm leaving. I need you to acknowledge the fact that I'm leaving. You can yell and throw things, but you can't ignore it." Elizabeth paused a moment. "I need you to acknowledge it, because I'm starting to think you're going nuts."

Severus was quiet for a long time. Elizabeth was still and silent, staring at the stitches in the shoulder of his robe. It was odd, seeing him dressed in robes this early in the morning, on school holidays. He always dressed like a Muggle at home if they weren't planning on going out. But he'd obviously not changed from his meeting.

"Never, in my life, have I thrown something," Severus said finally, breaking the silence.

"Okay, well, you slammed your hand into a wall when my name came out of the Goblet," Elizabeth said lightly.

"I don't remember that." Severus asserted.

"Well, Remus said so. You yelled at me and almost broke your hand. And that was better than ignoring it."

Severus was quiet again for a while, his hand tapping absently against her leg. "I've been told, by our werewolf-shaped translator, that I spent a bit of that period in denial as well."

"The last task," Elizabeth said quietly. "I needed you, and you were pretending like it wasn't happening."

"Who taught you to be this verbal, hmm?" Severus scowled.

"You," Elizabeth smiled. "So… are you going to yell? Or punch a wall?"

"I do not yell. I may raise my voice." Severus shook his head. "But I will not be doing either today."

"Dad, you have to admit—

"I'm not denying that you've made a choice," Severus interrupted. "I understand that you've been given a tremendous burden, as well as a cocktail of DNA that gives you a strong feeling of purpose in your life." He brushed the hair out of her face. "But you can't expect me to be happy. You are my daughter. I love you, and I always will. But this plan terrifies me, even more so because I can't go with you. So you shouldn't expect me to chat about it positively. Or throw you a going away party." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, it's still early. You should try to go back to bed. Have a bit of a lie-in."

"I'll make breakfast," Elizabeth said, kissing his cheek and sliding off her perch on his lap.

"After you wake up," Severus attempted, but was met with the sound of Elizabeth opening the refrigerator. "Elizabeth Rose, I'm speaking to you."

"Are you hungry?"

Severus rolled his eyes and stood, waving the lights out with his wand on the way out of the study. "Yes."

*S*S*

"Why can't we just floo to the Burrow?" Elizabeth accepted the cup of coffee that Remus handed her. "You know… during the day."

"There are going to be at least fifty people heading to the Weasley's over the next few days," Severus said, inspecting her Firebolt. "I'm relatively sure that the Dark Lord isn't actively seeking to kill you right now, although that might change if your future plans become public. However, a gathering full of blood-traitors is bound to be a target. We want to downplay the movement as much as possible."

"Okay, then let's apparate. _In the morning_."

Severus looked up. "You love to fly."

"During the day," Elizabeth agreed.

"We can't apparate with you," Remus said. "You still have the Trace for a few more days. If we side-along apparate, the Ministry will know you're moving."

"Who cares?" Elizabeth sat at the kitchen table.

"We have reason to believe that the Death Eaters have infiltrated the Ministry."

"Meaning you _know_ they have," Elizabeth looked at Severus. "Alright. So we're flying to the Burrow? It's that far?"

"We're flying to Tonks' parents' house," Remus said. "Then we'll take a Portkey to the Burrow."

"Why can't we take a Portkey from here?"

"Because I'm terribly inept at my magical travel," Severus said dryly.

"Tonks' parents have a cloaking ward that will allow us to use the Portkey without tracking," Remus explained. "We can't put a similar ward over this house because it's too close to the Muggle houses on this street."

"Which is why he's been pestering me to go there for the last two weeks," Tonks appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. She grinned at Elizabeth, "Ready to fly?"

"The last time we flew in the middle of the night, I almost froze to death."

"Take a cloak this time," Remus said, putting an arm around Tonks and kissing her. "And I don't know that several calm requests qualifies as 'pestering'."

Tonks laughed. "You've begged, cajoled, bribed, and, in a strange moment of insanity, _ordered_ me to go." She looked at Elizabeth. "He's so cute when he thinks I'll do what he says."

"They all are," Elizabeth smiled. "Just the other day, Fred—

"Alright, as much as I love a degrading show of feminism," Severus interrupted, "especially when it makes Remus extremely uncomfortable, we need to be off." He reached into a bag. "The three adults in the room are wearing deep blue hooded cloaks. You," he handed Elizabeth a bundle of fabric, "are wearing this."

"My cloak!" Elizabeth shook out the magical fabric. "Brilliant."

"I was going to give it to you on your birthday," Severus said, throwing his night-colored cloak around his shoulders. "However, you need it tonight."

"Thanks," Elizabeth tossed the cloak over her head and disappeared.

"Stop that," Severus groaned. "Wait until we get outside to give me a heart attack. Here," he handed Tonks a vial of potion. "Drink it, and then we'll decide if you need new clothes." He pointed his wand at Elizabeth's broom and murmured an incantation.

"If I do, I want to borrow that blue shirt you were wearing the other day," Tonks said to Elizabeth. "The one with the flittery sleeves."

"I don't think 'flittery' is a word," Remus said, putting his own cloak around his neck.

"She knows which one I'm talking about," Tonks downed the vial of liquid.

"You can borrow it," Elizabeth shrugged. "But, why…" A look of realization crossed her face as she stared at the empty vial. A golden pulp still settled in the bottom. "No."

"I told you she'd take it like this," Remus said as they watched Tonks' hair grow.

"You took my hair?" Elizabeth glared at Severus.

"Robbed, from your hairbrush," Severus rolled his eyes. "I created that hair, by the way."

"You're making me invisible so that, if we're attacked, they'll aim for Tonks!"

"Meanwhile, your broom will take you directly to our destination," Severus said evenly, taking the Firebolt from the table. "The charm is already set."

"No way."

"Hey," Tonks said, her voice still hers, but her body was a mirror of Elizabeth now. "You have really long legs."

"That's from me as well," Severus said lightly. "Let's everyone get outside. We don't have much more night."

"This is mad," Elizabeth argued. "You said that Voldemort—

"I said that he seemed to be unlikely to pursue you right now. However, I am equally as unlikely to trust that a madman will follow any idea for more than two minutes."

Elizabeth glared, but snatched her broom from Severus' hand. "I'm sorry, Tonks."

Tonks laughed, "It has to be me. Snape has to be there, in all his imposing glory, and the potion won't work correctly on Remus."

"Why?"

Severus groaned. "Elizabeth, you had _six years_ of Potions."

"Because Polyjuice Potion only works to change humans to humans." Elizabeth remembered.

"Exactly," Remus gave a little mock bow. "Not that I wouldn't do it if I could."

"Why does Tonks need the potion at all?" Elizabeth asked as they went toward the back door. "She's brilliant at changing."

"My hair color, maybe. Facial features. But I can't make myself taller, or thinner, or any of the things I'd need to be convincingly you. Plus, it's hard to maintain under stress." She ran into a chair. "Elizabeth, your eyesight really is awful."

"Glasses," Remus said, pulling a pair from his pocket. "We almost forgot."

"Firebolt," Severus handed a broom identical to Elizabeth's to Tonks.

"Who's is that?" Elizabeth asked.

"Sirius'," Remus answered. "He's already at the Tonks' house. Setting up the Portkey."

"No more questions," Severus led them out the door. "Let's go."

"Hagrid wanted to come. Fly you there in the sidecar of Sirius' bike." Remus said conversationally.

"He still has that?"

"Sirius bought a new one when he got out," Remus said. "You two go easy, okay? I'm riding a Nimbus here."

"Cast offs from the Slytherin Quidditch team," Severus explained. "I'd have taken the current ones, but Merlin only knows what a broom purchased by Lucius Malfoy has on it."

"Where's yours?" Elizabeth looked at Severus.

"I don't need one," Severus said dismissively.

"You're not coming?"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "I thought I'd just 'hang out' here while you wander across the country."

"Dad," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"I do not need a broom to fly." Severus said. "Mount up, everyone. It's time to go."

Remus and the two Elizabeths rose into the air, and Severus slipped his hood over his head before rising as well, completely unaided.

"Show-off," Remus accused. "You don't think that you being awesome will draw attention?"

"I think riding on a broom is not for men of my stature," Severus rose higher. "Off we go."

Hedwig swooped around Elizabeth's head and landed on her shoulder.

"Go to the Burrow," Elizabeth told the snowy owl. "But go the long way, okay? And fly high."

The owl hooted and flew off. Elizabeth pulled the invisibility cloak all the way over her head, and they were flying, higher and higher into the sky.

The journey started out easy. Quiet, and easy. But it couldn't last.

"Good evening, Snape." A voice came out of the dark, and a figure appeared.

"Greyback," Snape said calmly.

"Out for a family fly-around?" Greyback circled around. "Hello, Lupin."

"Good evening," Lupin said tightly.

Elizabeth dropped lower, to fly below the little knot.

"The girl who lived," Greyback flew behind Tonks, his broom handle brushing close to the bristles of her Firebolt. "You smell a bit different than I would have imagined. Less magic in your blood."

"Did you need something?" Severus asked.

"Just checking on our assets," Greyback moved to be beside Remus. "I can always use another member of the pack."

"This isn't really the place to do business," Severus said. "Interesting, that our Lord sent such a low-level lackey. In fact," he circled close to the werewolf, "I'm not sure I believe that you are here on His orders."

"He shouldn't trust you, Snape. Everyone knows that this… half-blood," Greyback looked at Tonks, "wants to bring down our Lord. You've raised a traitor. One of these days, the Dark Lord will get tired of playing this game, and I will be ready to get rid of her for him. Or perhaps make her a member of my pack."

"_Stupefy!_"

Greyback took a dive off the broom, falling like a stone.

Severus swore loudly, and looked at Remus. "All of you go now, and go fast. I'll… clean this up."

Elizabeth felt a tug on her broom and realized that Remus had the handle in his hand. They flew off and Severus lowered himself after the fallen Death Eater.

They touched down in the Tonks' backyard a half-hour later, and Remus barely let Elizabeth's feet touch the ground before he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the house. Tonks followed, taking all three brooms.

"What were you thinking?" Remus growled, shaking his goddaughter roughly. "You had better hope that he was really alone!"

"Remus," Tonks said, putting her hand on his arm. "Go easy."

Remus glared at her. "Stay out of it, Nymphadora."

"She's just a kid."

"She really isn't," Remus firmly removed her hand and turned back to Elizabeth. "Well? Speak!"

It was then, that he realized how tight his hand was on her arm. And how she was pulling away. And that she looked… afraid of him. She'd never looked afraid of him. He'd scolded her before. He'd even raised his voice louder than he should have. Hell, she'd seen him in werewolf form. She'd never looked afraid of him.

"Merlin's teeth," he said quietly, his breath hissing out in an irritated sigh. He released her, and turned back to Tonks, who was started to phase back into herself. She had one eyebrow raised, and her arms crossed over her chest.

"Are you through?" the metamorphmagus asked.

Remus was quiet, closing his eyes and resting on hand on his mouth, like he thought he might be sick.

"I was afraid that even if he went away… he'd follow us," Elizabeth said softly.

Remus turned toward the back window, gripping the windowsill.

"You're right," Tonks said, moving past her husband to Elizabeth. "You ended it fast. Greyback wasn't going to go away." She glanced at Remus. "He knows that."

Elizabeth glanced out the window. "What if he isn't dead?"

"He is," Remus said suddenly. "He fell a thousand feet. He's dead."

"Remus—

Lupin shook his head. "Adrenaline. I'm sorry." He turned away from the window and took her arm, much more gently. He pushed the sleeve of her robe up and saw the red finger marks he'd left there.

He dropped her arm like it was on fire and headed out the back door into the yard.

"Why don't you go upstairs and wake Sirius?" Tonks said reassuringly. "Tell him what happened, and I'll go talk to our brooder."

"He didn't really hurt me," Elizabeth said, looking at the man who was standing behind the house. "I bruise easily. He knows that."

"It'll be okay," Tonks pointed into the hallway. "The guest room is at the end of the hall." She watched the younger witch go up the stairs and then sighed, going out into the backyard.

Remus was standing and staring up at the sky, hands on his hips. Tonks stepped up behind him and slid her arms around his waist, resting her cheek between his shoulder blades. "It's good that I've shrunk again," Tonks said softly. "I fit perfectly right here."

"Do you see how dangerous I can be?" Remus' voice rumbled through his back and into her ear.

"Yes, you're pretty scary," Tonks teased. "Love, she doesn't hold it against you. You were afraid. Never for a second did I believe you were going to hurt her."

"I did hurt her."

"She killed for you," Tonks said, taking another tactic. "You know that, right? She was afraid that Greyback will kill us." She held him tighter. "You have an amazing relationship with that girl, Rem. She loves you, and you love her, and just because she scared the hell out of you tonight and you lost your temper, that's not going to change."

"It's not that," Remus sighed. "I mean, you're right that I lost my temper. It wasn't the first time. But we were up there tonight, and that…man…was inches from you and Elizabeth, and I let a sixteen-year-old girl do what I didn't have the stomach to do. Half of my anger earlier was that I didn't do it myself. Merlin, Dora…"

"Remus John Lupin," Tonks moved around him so she was standing in front of him, arms still clasped around his midsection. "Of all the nonsense you've ever said, and there's been quite a bit, that's the most ridiculous. We never could have pulled a wand on him. She saw the opportunity and took it. I might attribute that to the man who has been training her in Defense for years."

"Severus or Sirius?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Stop it," Tonks scowled.

"Speaking of Severus," Remus looked over her head. "Where is he?"


	3. Forever

"Sirius," Elizabeth shook his shoulder. "Wake up."

Sirius blinked sleepily. "Hey, beautiful." He glanced at the clock. "You made good time."

"Yeah."

Sirius sat up and looked closer at her. His eyes narrowed. "_Why_ did you make good time?"

Elizabeth grimaced. "Greyback. He met us about a half hour out."

Sirius' feet hit the floor. "Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah," Elizabeth shook her head. "No."

"What does that mean?"

"I stunned Greyback. He fell. Remus says a thousand feet. Dad went to clean up the body."

"Remus and Tonks are here with you?" Sirius threw his robe over his pajama bottoms and t-shirt.

"Yeah. Remus is pissed at me."

"His angel child? Never." Sirius ruffled her hair. "You stunned him?"

Elizabeth nodded. "He threatened us."

"Good girl," Sirius grinned. "And Remus will think so too. Severus is still gone?"

Elizabeth nodded again. "Do you think we should go—

"No," Sirius interrupted. "The Portkey is leaving in," he looked at the clock on the wall in the hallway, "half an hour. If he's not here by then, you'll go on to the Burrow and we'll go find him."

"I could—

"No you couldn't," Sirius led the way down the stairs. "Don't confuse my pride in your fighting skills with any change in my feelings about your involvement in dangerous activities."

"You sound like Dad."

"Ouch," Sirius put an arm around her shoulders and walked into the living room. "Why are they in the backyard?"

"I told you, Remus is mad. Tonks is trying to smooth it over."

"He'll get over it." Sirius tilted his head to look at her. "You're alright?"

"I'm fine," Elizabeth shrugged. "It was different, somehow, than the killing curse."

"It's completely different." Sirius nodded soberly. "Not that I would have blamed you if you'd killed him that way. It's a war, not a garden party."

Remus and Tonks were heading toward the house then, and Sirius and Elizabeth were quiet as they came through the door.

"No sign of Severus," Remus said. "Elizabeth told you what happened?"

"She said you're being an arse," Sirius said helpfully.

"Sirius! I did not!" Elizabeth protested.

"Don't worry, I know whose twisted mind that came from," Remus held out one arm to her, and she let him tuck her against his side. "If Severus isn't back by the time the Portkey goes, you and Tonks can go ahead, Sirius and I will go find him."

"This is my house," Tonks reminded him. "No reason for me to go on at all."

"Actually, we just left your house," Remus commented. "But the semantics don't matter. If Severus isn't here soon, it's because there is a problem. I'd appreciate it if you went with Elizabeth to make sure that everything is alright at the Burrow."

"And to keep me away from whatever is going on out there," Tonks raised an eyebrow.

"Just a fringe benefit, I assure you," Remus rubbed Elizabeth's arm with one hand.

"It's fine," Elizabeth assured him.

"It's not," Remus sighed.

"I'm not sorry I killed him," Elizabeth looked up at her godfather. "I thought about Disarming him—

"I'm only sorry you had to," Remus said firmly. "The time for Disarming is past. You did what you should have done. Too many Death Eaters have seen you utilize restraint in the past. I'm sorry that it seemed like I was condemning your actions. I was startled." He turned his attention to Sirius. "The Portkey?"

"This fabulous little item," Sirius gestured to a cracked vase on the table. "It really pulls the room together, don't you think?"

"Twenty minutes," Tonks said. "I'm going to go wake my parents."

"I'm surprised you didn't already," Sirius commented.

Tonks grinned. "They bother Remus."

"That's not true," Remus shook his head. "It's just that they can't be as happy as they are pretending to be."

Tonks rolled her eyes. "Come with me, Elizabeth. My mother can gush over you for a bit."

Elizabeth followed Tonks up the stairs. "It's not that he grabbed me that scared me, you know."

"No?"

"It scares me when he's so… unstable. Going mental is Sirius' job."

"He's…" Tonks seemed to stop herself from saying something. "You're his daughter. You know that, right? His child, even if you don't share his blood. He's having a hard time with that right now."

"You guys should have kids," Elizabeth said, following her down the hall. "You know, after this is all over."

Tonks didn't answer, only knocked on the bedroom door in front of them.

*S*S*

Fred had Elizabeth in his arms twenty seconds after her feet hit the grass. "I was afraid you weren't coming," he said quietly.

"Portkeys are timed, you know," Elizabeth laughed.

"I know," Fred smiled. He looked at Tonks. "Where's everyone else?"

"There was a complication," Elizabeth said. "I…killed Greyback. Dad stayed behind to clean up the body, and Remus and Sirius went to help, because he hadn't come back by the time the Portkey was ready."

"And you were sent to babysit?" Fred looked at Tonks.

"My husband, who thinks he's the Alpha of a two-person pack, threatened to hex me if I didn't go."

"Remus?" Fred looked at Elizabeth.

"He's acting weird today," Elizabeth shrugged.

"You killed Greyback?" Bill, who had apparently been listening at the back door, stepped out into the yard.

Elizabeth looked at him, not quite sure what she saw in his scarred face. "Consider it an early wedding present."

Bill gave a lopsided grin, making him look more like Fred than Elizabeth had ever realized. "Could have gotten us a salad bowl or something, easier to write a thank-you note, really." He took her from Fred and hugged her fiercely. "When are you going to be become my sister, then, hmm?"

"Is Charlie looking for a wife?" Elizabeth joked, pulling away from Bill to grin at Fred.

"Portkey travel scrambled your brain," Fred rolled his eyes and put his arm around her. "Let's go in, and I'll try to smuggle you by Mum."

Elizabeth looked over his shoulder and saw three figures appear through the wards. "Dad!"

"Reckless little monster," Severus growled, crushing her to his chest.

"Are you angry?"

Severus looked down at her. "Hardly."

"We should go inside," Remus said, reaching for Tonks' hand. "Maybe get a few hours sleep, if Molly would indulge us."

"Be quiet," Bill advised. "She's sleeping badly lately. I volunteered to wait up for you, but that doesn't guarantee that she will have trusted that I'd do it."

"That's why she had me do it too," Fred grinned. "Although I think she thought she was asking George."

"Mum set Sirius, Remus, and Professor Snape in the room at the end of the hall. Elizabeth, you're in with Ginny, Hermione, and, well, Fleur, for the time being." Bill led the way back into the house.

"Charlie isn't here yet, so Fleur isn't going to be really spending the night in the girls' room," Fred whispered. "Bill's got the room to himself."

"And you?" Elizabeth asked, softly.

"George is staying at our place until the last minute. Avoiding the fray and… well, I think Angelina's probably there as well if you want to know the truth."

"You think she's pretty?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

Fred rolled his eyes. "I'm not going near that question," he stopped in front of the girls' room. "Goodnight. Mum has all the windows open, but you can close it if you get cold." He looked into her eyes, and a moment of understanding passed between them. Fred turned and walked down the hall two doors and went inside.

"Sleep well, beautiful," Sirius kissed her forehead.

Severus looked at Fred's closed door. "That door stays closed, yes?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Goodnight, Dad."

"Goodnight, warrior," he kissed her cheek. "I have a Draught—

"I'll be okay," Elizabeth assured him.

Severus hugged her again and followed Sirius into their room, leaving Elizabeth and Remus alone in the hall as Tonks went into the room next to Elizabeth's.

"There's something," Elizabeth said, putting her arms around his waist and putting her head on his shoulder, "that you aren't telling me."

"Elizabeth—

"It's okay," Elizabeth interrupted. "But I love you. And whatever it is that's making you mental is going to be fine."

Remus was quiet for a moment, holding her tight. "I hope so," he said finally. "I don't deserve you, you know that?"

"You really are off your nut," Elizabeth kissed his cheek. "Go be nice to your wife."

Inside her room, Elizabeth immediately stuffed pillows under the blankets on the spare bed, then donned her invisibility cloak, slipping out the window. It was annoying that Remus and Tonks were in the room between hers and Fred's. It wasn't even a real room. It was fake space created for the guests at the wedding. Anyway, she made it past that room with no problem and dropped through Fred's window.

"You look exhausted," Fred said, pulling a t-shirt over his head.

"You're changing?"

"This color sets off my eyes."

"Whatever," Elizabeth put her cloak on a chair and pulled off her robe. "Remus has gone insane, and Dad is not at all horrified that I went rogue tonight. I think that, perhaps, this is all a dream."

"You really do look wiped," Fred sat on the bed.

"You really know how to charm a girl," Elizabeth rolled her eyes and sat beside him. "I don't sleep well at home."

"Why is that?" Fred pulled the blankets back and lay down, pulling her with him.

"That bed is missing a key item," Elizabeth settled against his shoulder, one arm slung across his stomach.

"I'm a key item, hmm?"

"It would seem that way."

*S*S*

She was walking along a mountain road in the cool blue light of dawn. Far below, swathed in mist, was the shadow of a small town. Was the man she sought down there, the man she needed so badly she could think of little else, the man who held the answer, the answer to her problem…?

"Betsy, wake up."

Elizabeth opened her eyes. She was lying in Fred's bed with sun streaming through the window. The scar on her forehead prickled.

"You were muttering in your sleep," Fred said, sitting against the headboard.

"Was I?"

"Yeah. 'Gregorovitch.' You kept saying 'Gregorovitch.'"

Elizabeth was not wearing her glasses; Fred's face was blurry, and she couldn't read his expression. "Who's Gregorovitch?"

"You were the one saying it," Fred handed over her glasses.

Elizabeth rubbed her forehead, thinking. She recognized the name, but couldn't place it. "I think Voldemort's looking for him."

"You scar hurts?"

Elizabeth sat up, trying to remember exactly what she'd seen. "I think he's abroad."

"Who, Gregorovitch?"

"Voldemort. I think he's somewhere abroad. It didn't look like anywhere in Britain."

"You're seeing into his mind again?" Fred looked worried. "Your scar," he rubbed the pad of his thumb over it. "Does that hurt?"

"He's got something to do with Quidditch," Elizabeth said slowly. "There's some connection, but I can't think of what it is."

"Betsy," Fred said, his voice sharper. "Will you answer the bloody question, please?"

"It stings," Elizabeth said, rubbing her forehead. "But not bad. Don't tell anyone."

Fred looked like he wanted to argue, but shook his head, sighing. "Sure you're not thinking of Gorgovitch?"

"Who?"

"Dragomir Gorgovitch, Chaser for the Chudley Cannons. Awful, he is."

"No," Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm definitely not thinking of Gorgovitch."

"Maybe it'll come to you," Fred said. "Anyway, it's your last day before you're of age. Anything you want to do?"

Elizabeth stood, stretching. "I'm interested to see what Fred Weasley has in his room as a child."

"Careful, most of this stuff explodes," Fred smiled.

"That's not surprising at all," Elizabeth went to the bookshelf. "_The Tales of Beedle the Bard_?"

"You've never heard of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_? You're kidding."

"No," Elizabeth shook her head.

"Oh come on!" Fred sat in his desk chair. "All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's. 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune'… "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot'… 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'…"

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth giggled. "What was that last one?"

"Come off it!" Fred looked at her, disbelieving. "You must've heard—

"Fred, you know full well that I was brought up by Muggles… at least when I would have read this stuff. In Muggle school, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and "Cinderella'—

"What's that, an illness?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and came across the room to cuddle into his lap. "Snow White was cast into the forest by her evil stepmother, the Queen, because she was too beautiful. The Queen sent a hunter to kill her, but the hunter released her instead. She found seven dwarfs that helped her find the prince."

"Dwarves would have never been that helpful," Fred shook his head. "Cinderella?"

"She really wanted to go to a ball, but she couldn't, because she was being made to serve her stepmother and her stepsisters. On the night of the ball, her fairy Godmother showed up, and gave her a beautiful dress and turned a pumpkin and mice into a carriage and horses for her to go to the ball."

"So these are magic stories," Fred said. "Transfiguration in Muggle stories?"

"They're fantasy," Elizabeth said. "Anyway, she gets to the ball, and she's so beautiful that the Prince dances with her all night. But she has to leave at midnight, because the spells on her dress and the coach will disappear."

"That's a poorly-trained witch, that is."

"She's not a witch. She's a fairy Godmother. But it's okay, because when she leaves, she leaves behind one of her glass slippers, and the Prince searches the kingdom for the woman who fits the shoe. And then they get married and live happily ever after."

"The slipper is glass?"

"Or gold, depending on who is telling the story."

Fred shook his head. "No wonder Muggles are so easy to Obliviate, if that's what they think magic can do. How does the shoe stay when everything else disappears?"

"How should I know?" Elizabeth looked back at the bookshelf. "_Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches_?"

Fred blushed. "It's George's."

"And I'm blonde."

"You were, for like 10 hours that one year—

Elizabeth tried to reach for the book, but Fred distracted her by catching her mouth in a long kiss.

"Did you learn that from the book?" Elizabeth asked, breathlessly, when they broke apart.

"Some things you can't learn from a book," Fred said wickedly.

There was a knock on the door. "It's Bill," the knocker called.

Fred pointed his wand at the door to unlock it. "Come in."

Bill stuck his head in the door. "Mum says it's breakfast. I'd stay away from her, Elizabeth. She's railing on Snape pretty good down there."

"Did you ask him what he did with Greyback's body?" Fred looked at her.

"No, he seemed so cool with the whole situation," Elizabeth shrugged.

"He called you a 'reckess little monster'."

"That's a pretty high compliment for Dad," Elizabeth grinned. "Why is your mum yelling at him?"

"Putting you in danger, poor planning, etc," Bill shrugged. "Anyway, you might want to sneak back through the window so you can come out the right door. Just in case."

"I'm going," Elizabeth kissed Fred.

"I'll meet you in the hall."

Elizabeth slipped back out onto the roof and through the window, where Hermione, Fleur, and Ginny were finishing getting dressed. "Your Mum says it's breakfast," Elizabeth said to Ginny.

"Bill was just here."

"Why were you on the roof?" Fleur asked.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "She was sleeping with my brother." She looked around the room. "Oh, my god, everyone in this room is sleeping with my brother."

"Not me," Hermione protested, then squirmed under three pairs of eyes looking at her. "I'm not!"

*S*S*

"I can't deal with an hour of your mum fussing," Elizabeth said, dressed and in the hallway ten minutes later. "Tell them I'm not feeling well and I went back to bed."

"Lie to my mother?" Fred pretended to be shocked. "I'll bring you food in a little while."

"Thank you," Elizabeth went back into the room and replaced the pillows with herself in the bed. She really was tired, the few hours of sleep she'd had weren't counteracting the adrenaline of the night. However, the pain in her forehead was spreading into a tingling mass of flame. It kept sleep away as she tried to smother it with the cool pillow.

She lay awake for perhaps ten minutes when there was a knock at the door. Severus entered without waiting. He sat on the edge of the bed and put his hand on her forehead. "No fever."

"Not sick, just tired."

"Hmm," Severus carded his hand through her hair. "Afraid of Molly Weasley?"

"I heard she was yelling at you."

"She's not as frightening as she thinks she is," Severus said wryly. "Are you sure that it's only fatigue?" He looked concerned. "You look pale."

"I'm always pale," Elizabeth smiled. "I got my dad's complexion."

"That's true," Severus smiled. He waved his wand, a plate filled with breakfast food appeared on the bedside table. "If you're only tired, then you can eat." He gestured to the food.

Elizabeth felt her stomach lurch with the thought of putting anything in it. The pain in her forehead lingering with such a vengeance that it seemed to be attacking the rest of her nervous system.

Severus' eyes narrowed. "Unless you're feeing something else?"

"Fred told you," she accused.

"He certainly did not," Severus said. _I think we can both agree that a pointed rub of the redhead's forehead in the shape of a bolt gives him plausible deniability_, Severus thought to himself.

Elizabeth glared, but allowed him to put his hand back on her forehead. "Voldemort is abroad."

"I've no doubt," Severus said patiently. "Otherwise, we may have seen him last night."

"Did you find Greyback?"

Severus nodded shortly. "It's taken care of," he said.

"Do you know what's wrong with Remus?"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Is he missing a limb?"

"No, but he… it's like he took it personally. He acted like you."

Severus frowned. "He said he grabbed you. He feels terrible about that."

"He screamed at me," Elizabeth shook her head. "He doesn't do that, usually."

"He's been a bit off recently," Severus sighed.

"You don't know why?"

"We don't, generally, sit around discussing feelings and braiding each other's hair. That's what his wife is for," Severus smoothed his hand off her forehead. "How does it feel?"

"Better," Elizabeth smiled. "I don't know how you do that."

"Cold hands," Severus joked. "Eat something."

*S*S*

The next morning came quickly. Elizabeth woke to an empty bed, and made her way downstairs where Bill and Monsieur Delacour were finishing plates of eggs and bacon while Mrs. Weasley chatted at them over her frying pan.

"Arthur told me to wish you a happy seventeenth, Elizabeth," Mrs. Weasley chirped. "He had to leave early for work, but he'll be back for dinner. That's our present on top."

Elizabeth looked over at the table, again, this time seeing the pile of gifts. She wondered, vaguely, if she'd ever get used to presents on holidays.

"Eat first," Severus came into the kitchen from the living room. He put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "Happy Birthday, hatchling."

"Thank you."

"Presents in the living room," Fred declared, coming in the same door Severus had just passed through. He scooped them up and carried them away.

"Bossy, isn't he?" Bill said, watching his brother's retreating back.

"Where's everyone?" Elizabeth sat down and Molly set a plate in front of her.

"Fleur and her mum are doing something that involved jewelry," Bill said. "Ginny and Hermione were going to go with them, but apparently Ron had something he needed. I honestly wasn't paying much attention."

Elizabeth ate, polishing off eggs and toast with a glass of juice.

"George and Charlie are coming in two hours," Molly said. "Fred!"

"Yes, mum?" Fred came back into the kitchen.

"I want you to move up to the attic with Ron. Set it up so that George and Charlie can stay up there too. The Delacours will stay in your room."

"Okay, mum, but after presents."

"Frederick Weasley—

"Okay, okay," Fred dropped a kiss on Elizabeth's head. "Two minutes."

"He's very excited about your birthday," Monsieur Delacour commented.

"He's easily amused," Severus said dryly. "Remus is strengthening the wards. I imagine I have more than two minutes."

*S*S*

"Come on, then, open Hermione's," Ron said, handing her another gift.

"It's a new Sneakoscope," Hermione said, as Elizabeth pulled off the wrapping. "It's not that the one you have is bad," she shot a furtive look at Severus.

"It's traditional to allow the recipient to open the present before commenting on its contents, Miss Granger," Severus said evenly. "And I'm well aware of the expiration date for such things. She was in dire need of a new one."

"I'll pack it for you," Hermione took it from her lap. "I'm nearly done, I'm just waiting for the rest of your underpants to come out of the wash, Ron—

"Hermione," Ron sputtered, embarrassed.

"This is from Sirius, Dora, and I," Remus said, handing Elizabeth another package.

It was a broom-shrinking bag.

"The technology just came through," Sirius said. "Makes it safe to shrink it down without damaging it."

"Brilliant," Elizabeth said.

"Alright then," Severus gestured to the last gift on the table. "That next one is from me, though you don't have to open it now."

Elizabeth shook her head. "You do that every year. He has no confidence in presents." She pulled the paper away from the wooden box that lay under the wrapping. Opening it, she found her father's gold pocket watch.

"It's really a tradition to give a wizard a watch when he comes of age," Severus cleared his throat. "But seeing as I don't have a son…"

Elizabeth put the box on the table, gently, and put her arms around his neck. "Thank you, Dad."

"Well," Severus cleared his throat again. "Don't… Let any harm come to it. Please."

Elizabeth hugged him tighter, understanding exactly what he was doing. He was letting her go.

"There's one more," Severus said finally, disengaging her arms from around him.

Elizabeth sat back on the sofa. Fred was standing to her right, a box wrapped in silver in his hands. "Actually… umm…" Fred had suddenly lost all his urgency. "I was thinking that maybe you could open it outside."

Elizabeth looked at Severus, who rolled his eyes and gestured to the door. She accepted Fred's outstretched hand and followed him out into the back garden.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth looked at Fred, who was several shades paler than he'd been ten minutes ago.

"Nothing," he said, pulling her over to a bench under one of the trees. "Here," he handed her the box.

"Are you sure you don't need… water? Or something?" Elizabeth asked as she slid the paper off the velvet box.

"No," Fred shook his head. "Open it."

Elizabeth opened the box to reveal… a ring. A white gold, solitaire-diamond ring. She managed to pull her eyes away from it, looking at Severus, who was standing at the back door, watching. "Don't look at me," he said resignedly.

Elizabeth shifted her focus to the grass in front of her. Fred Weasley was on one knee. "I'm regretting giving it to you first," he said nervously. "Because I've got nothing to do with my hands now, do I?" He looked up at her. "I promised your father I'd wait until you were of age, and I realize it's cutting it close, but…if the world's falling down around us, I want to stand with you. Will you stand with me? Forever?"


	4. The Will of Albus Dumbledore

"He could have waited," George said, a bit put out. "I've a right to see my brother get engaged, don't I?"

"Well, maybe you should have come yesterday like your mum said," Elizabeth grinned.

"Where is Romeo?" Charlie asked.

"I think he's sicking up," Elizabeth laughed. "But don't tell him I told you."

"Never, little sister," Bill spun her around. "Weasleys look after each other. If I'd known what he was planning, I wouldn't have made the crack the other night."

"Gave me one last chance to flirt with Charlie," Elizabeth laughed. "Even if he wasn't there."

"Sounds like I missed a good time," Charlie smiled.

"How about you get your hands off my fiancé?" Fred appeared in the doorway.

"Hey, brother. Heard you were tossing your breakfast," George grinned.

"George!" Elizabeth smacked him in the arm.

"Didn't eat breakfast," Fred admitted. "I had other things on my mind."

Elizabeth put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Is that why you were alone in a room with my dad this morning?"

"Never again," Fred said seriously. "Put my life on the line for you, really."

"This wasn't the first time you'd mentioned it, right?" Elizabeth looked at him.

"Are you questioning my proposal?" Fred said in mock horror; then smiled. "No, my panic-riddled girl, it was not the first time. I talked to him a year ago."

"A year?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "How did you manage to keep that a secret?"

"Didn't have to," Fred grinned. "He said no. He's said no every time I've asked him for the last year."

"But he said yes this morning."

Fred nodded. "He said yes this morning."

"Mum wants the 'men in this house' to 'make themselves useful' and put up the tent," Ginny said, coming into the living room. "She's not speaking to Fred, but she'd like him to help as well."

"She's not speaking to him?" Elizabeth looked at Ginny, alarmed.

"It seems he chose the wrong ring," Ginny rolled her eyes.

Fred groaned. "What is wrong with her?"

"The wrong ring?" Elizabeth looked at Fred.

"Don't worry, little brother," Bill grinned. "She only froze me out for two days."

"Will someone tell me what we're talking about?" Elizabeth asked.

"Mum's grandmother's ring," Charlie groaned. "The thing is ghastly, really, but Mum has this idea that it'll be passed down. Bill was supposed to give it to Fleur."

"But I love her, is the thing," Bill laughed.

Elizabeth looked at the sparkling stone on her finger. "My ring is beautiful." She kissed Fred, who grinned.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you had the other one," Ginny assured her. "Anyway, Dad will be here in a minute, and Mum wants the tent up."

Suddenly, a streak of light came flying across the yard and through the window, where it resolved itself into a bright silver weasel, which stood on its hind legs and spoke with Mr. Weasley's voice.

"Minister of Magic coming with me."

The Patronus dissolved into thin air.

Bill pressed his lips into a thin line. "I'm going to go… speak to Lupin." He hurried out of the room.

"The Minister?" Charlie looked bewildered. "Why?"

But there was no time to speculate. A second later, Mr. Weasley had appeared out of thin air at the gate, accompanied by Rufus Scrimgeour, instantly recognizable by his mane of grizzled hair.

The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the house, where everybody stood in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came closer, Elizabeth saw that he looked much older than the last time she'd seen him.

"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt inside the door. "Especially as I can see that I'm crashing a party." He looked around at the wrapping paper still lying on the living room table. "Arthur tells me it is your birthday, Miss Evans. Many happy returns."

"Thank you," Elizabeth said warily, squeezing Fred's hand.

"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."

"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"

"Is there somewhere more private?" The Minister looked around the room.

"The, er, study, why don't you use that?"

"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur. Nor any of the rest of you."

Elizabeth shared a look with Fred, who leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Keep your wand ready."

*S*S*

"What is he here about?" Severus asked, following Fred down the stairs.

"I don't know, sir, but we can find out," he held up an ear. "The newest wireless model."

"You've bugged your own study?"

"We were testing the prototype," Fred said. "The Order needed a way to listen in the Ministry, right? I just didn't put away our testers yet."

"Lucky for us, I suppose."

Fred stopped at the end of the stairs. "This should be close enough." He tapped the ear with his wand, and Scrimgeour's voice could be heard, clear as if they were standing right next to him.

"I have some questions for the three of you, and I think it will be best if we do it individually. If you two can wait upstairs, I will start with Ronald."

"We're not going anywhere," it was Elizabeth's voice now. "You can speak to us together, or not at all."

"A diplomat, she is not," Severus smirked.

"Very well then, together," Scrimgeour said. "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will."

"Perhaps you should speak with my father," Elizabeth said. "The executor of his estate."

"Actually, it appears that Dumbledore arranged much of his will on his own," Scrimgeour said. "Odd, certainly, though not as odd as the fact that he left the three of you some of his possessions."

"All of us?" Ron asked, "Me and Hermione too?"

"Yes, all of—

Elizabeth's voice interrupted. "Dumbledore died over a month ago. Why has it taken this long to give us what he left us?"

"Good girl," Severus murmured. "Use your head."

"Isn't it obvious?" said Hermione. "They wanted to examine whatever he's left us. You had no right to do that!"

"I had every right," said Scrimgeour dismissively. "The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation gives the Ministry the power to confiscate the contents of a will—

"That law was created to stop wizards passing on Dark artifacts," said Hermione, "and the Ministry is supposed to have powerful evidence that the deceased's possessions are illegal before seizing them! Are you telling me that you thought Dumbledore was trying to pass us something cursed?"

"Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.

"You'd better hope not," Severus muttered.

"No, I'm not," retorted Hermione. "I'm hoping to do some good in the world!"

Fred laughed, and it sounded like Ron did as well.

"So why have you decided to let us have our things now?" Elizabeth said. "Can't think of a pretext to keep them?"

"No, it'll be because the thirty-one days are up," said Hermione at once. "They can't keep the objects longer than that unless they can prove they're dangerous. Right?"

"She's like a witch-shaped encyclopedia," Severus said admiringly.

"Would you say you were close to Dumbledore, Ronald?" Scrimgeour asked, clearly ignoring Hermione.

"Me? Not… not really…"

"Shut up, Ron," Fred whispered, knowing full-well his brother couldn't hear him.

"If you were not very close to Dumbledore, how do you account for the fact that he remembered you in his will? He left almost everything to Hogwarts. Why do you think you were singled out?"

"Dumbledore was very fond of him," Hermione said.

"The Last Will and Testament of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore," Scrimgeour's voice read out. "To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it."

There was a pause, then Scrimgeour's voice again. "That is a valuable object. It may even be unique. Certainly it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you an item so rare?"

"I'm going in there," Fred said, starting toward the door.

"No," Severus put a hand on his arm, stopping him. "Just wait."

Ron apparently had no answer, because Scrimgeour went on. "To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_, in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive."

"That's interesting," Fred said softly.

"What?" Severus looked at the younger wizard.

"Betsy and I were just talking about that book," Fred explained. "She'd never heard of it before, and I'm assuming that Hermione won't have either, being raised by Muggles."

"Why that particular book, Miss Granger?" Scrimgeour asked. "Did you ever discuss codes, or any means of passing secret messages, with Dumbledore?"

"No, I didn't," Hermione said, her voice thick with tears. "And if the Ministry hasn't found any hidden codes in this book in thirty-one days, I doubt that I will."

"To Elizabeth Rose Evans-Snape," Scrimgeour read. "Odd, don't you think that he'd hyphenate your name like that, Miss Evans?"

"He was respecting my father, I'd imagine," Elizabeth said evenly.

"I'm sure," Scrimgeour said. "To Elizabeth Rose Evans-Snape, I leave the Snitch she caught in her first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill." There was a pause. "Why did Dumbledore leave you this Snitch?"

"No idea," Elizabeth said blandly. "For the reasons you just read out, I suppose."

"You think this is a mere symbolic keepsake, then?"

"I suppose so," Elizabeth said calmly. "What else could it be?"

"I'm asking the questions," Scrimgeour said sharply. "It seems like an odd present, doesn't it?"

"My grandfather once gave me a cat when I'm really more of a dog person," Elizabeth answered conversationally. "Some might say that was a bit odd."

"I love that girl," Fred said, nearly choking on the laughter he tried to suppress.

"Watch yourself, young man," Severus said.

"A snitch, unlike a cat, would be a very good hiding place for a small object. You know why, I'm sure?"

"Because Snitches have flesh memories," Hermione answered.

"Knowledge that is far reaching," Severus shook his head. "When she's Minister of Magic, will that emasculate your brother?"

Fred just snorted and continued to listen.

"Correct," said Scrimgeour. "A Snitch is not touched by bare skin before it is released. It carries an enchantment by which it can identify the first human to lay hands upon it, in case of a disputed capture. This Snitch will remember your touch, Miss Evans. It occurs to me that Dumbledore might have enchanted this Snitch so that it will open only for you."

There was a long pause.

"You don't say anything," said Scrimgeour. "Perhaps you already know that the Snitch contains?"

"No," Elizabeth said slowly.

"Take it," Scrimgeour said quietly.

"She can't touch that Snitch," Fred said urgently. But before the words had completely left his mouth, Severus was at the study door, knocking and opening the door.

"Snape," Scrimgeour said, standing. "This is a private meeting."

"With an underage witch," Severus said smoothly, holding out his hand. "As her father, I'll maintain any property bequeathed to her."

"She is of age," Scrimgeour sputtered. "It's July 31st."

"She isn't of age for," Severus glanced at the clock on the wall, "three more hours." He held out his hand. "I'd get her birth certificate, but I'm most likely a reliable witness."

Scrimgeour handed over the Snitch.

"If there isn't anything else," Severus said, his robes starting to billow with unseen wind. "We're celebrating my daughter's birthday here today."

"There is something," Scrimgeour said, looking bad-tempered. "Dumbledore left you a second bequest, Miss… _Snape_."

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked.

"The sword of Godric Gryffindor."

Hermione and Ron stiffened. Severus did not move his gaze from the Minister. Elizabeth looked around for a sign of the ruby-encrusted hilt, but Scrimgeour did not pull the sword from the pouch he'd kept the other items in.

"So where is it?" Elizabeth broke the silence.

"Unfortunately," said Scrimgeour, "that sword was not Dumbledore's to give away. The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an important historical artifact, and as such, belongs—

"It belongs to Elizabeth!" said Hermione hotly. "It chose her, she was the one who found it. Second year!"

"According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor. That does not make it exclusive property of Miss Evans, whatever Dumbledore may have decided." Scrimgeour scrutinized Elizabeth. "Why do you think—

"Dumbledore wanted to give me the sword?" said Elizabeth bit the inside of her cheek to keep her temper. "Maybe he thought he'd make up for the cat."

"This is not a joke, Evans," growled Scrimgeour. "Was it because Dumbledore believed that only the sword of Godric Gryffindor cold defeat the Heir of Slytherin? Did he wish to give you that sword because he believed, as do many, that you are the one destined to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"Interesting theory," Elizabeth said. "Has anyone ever tried sticking a sword in Voldemort? Maybe the Ministry should put some people onto that, instead of wasting their time stripping down Deluminators or covering up breakouts from Azkaban. So is this that you've been doing, Minister, shut up in your office, trying to break open a Snitch? People are dying, but there's been no word from the Ministry, has there? And you're still expect us to cooperate with you!"

"You go too far!" shouted Scrimgeour. "Snape, control your daughter!"

"I think she's doing just fine," Severus said calmly.

"I am controlling myself," Elizabeth said, her eyes burning into Scrimgeour. "Although I seem to have forgotten that my father taught me never to argue with a fool."

Scrimgeour's face was red. "I am not Dumbledore, Evans. I do not forgive insolence and insubordination. You may wear that scar like a crown, but it is not up to a seventeen-year-old girl to tell me how to do my job! It's time you learned some respect!"

"It's time you earned it," Elizabeth snapped, and Scrimgeour advanced toward her, wand drawn.

Severus stepped between them, his wand a millimeter from Scrimgeour's nose. "We're done here," he said quietly.

Scrimgeour stepped back. "I regret your attitude," he said, looking at Elizabeth. "You seem to think that the Ministry does not desire what you desire. We ought to be working together." He looked at Severus. "I hope that you won't allow this kind of behavior at Hogwarts."

"He certainly won't employ your methods, Minister," Elizabeth said, holding up her hand, where the faint white scars of _I must not tell lies_ stretched across the back.

Scrimgeour's expression hardened. He turned away without another word and left the room; Fred stepped aside to let him pass.

Elizabeth waited until she heard the backdoor slam, and then looked at Severus. "Three hours?"

Severus nodded. "You were born at 1:04 in the afternoon. Technically."

"Can I have it?" Elizabeth held out her hand.

Severus put the Snitch in her upturned palm, and everyone in the room looked at it, holding their breath. But nothing happened.

"Well, that was…spectacular," Ron said sarcastically.

"Wait," Fred said, coming further into the room. "You didn't catch that Snitch with your hand."

"What do you mean?" Severus looked at Fred.

"Your first match," Fred said urgently. "It was when Quirrell hexed your broom. You didn't catch the Snitch with your hand—

"I nearly swallowed it," Elizabeth said, and without saying another word, she pressed her lips to the Snitch.

It did not open.

"Writing!" Hermione cried out, pointing, "There's writing on it, quick, look!"

Hermione was right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanting handwriting that Elizabeth recognizes as Dumbledore's:

_I open at the close._

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elizabeth asked.

"No idea," Hermione shrugged.

"May I?" Severus held out his hand, and Elizabeth handed him the Snitch. He held it up, inspecting it, but came away with much the same expression that the others in the room had. "Keep it close," he said, handing it back to her.

*S*S*

Hermione stood, arms crossed, looking skeptically at Elizabeth's hair. "You have to hold _still_."

"I would, but you're pointing your wand at my head."

"We didn't have this problem when you wanted to dye it."

"I was young and stupid," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Close your eyes," Hermione said, "because no one in this room has the ability to do anything with your hair in any Muggle way."

Elizabeth sighed, and shut her eyes. "Okay, but remember that my dad takes my hair very personally."

"It's not nice to pressure me," Hermione said, raising her wand and focusing. She murmured a long incantation, and Elizabeth felt her hair rise. "Okay, open your eyes," Hermione said; sounding happy with herself.

Elizabeth looked in the mirror and smiled. Her hair was piled in smooth curls at the back of her head. "It's brilliant."

"You're welcome," Hermione smiled, and set to work on her own hair. "I could do it for your wedding, you know."

Elizabeth looked at her left hand, then at Ginny who was fussing with her own hair across the room. She wanted to talk to Hermione about how she was afraid she'd never walk down the aisle to Fred. How one or both of them might not make it. But not in front of Ginny. She couldn't.

"Yeah," she said, leaning closer to the mirror. "What do you think, contacts?"

"I think you should get the surgery," Hermione said. "It only takes a minute."

"It's expensive."

"You are the richest girl in the house," Hermione reminded her.

"True," Elizabeth said, putting in the contacts. "But that won't help me right now." She dabbed eye shadow on her lids, coated her lashes with mascara, and slicked gloss on her lips. Her dress was hanging on the back of the door, deep green sleeveless, tight in the waist and floaty to the knee. Silver heels.

"You're dressing like a Slytherin?" Hermione looked at her.

Elizabeth looked at the dress. "I hadn't realized. I guess so."

"There's going to be enough red and gold," Ginny said.

"I don't want to look like a bridesmaid," Elizabeth grinned, pointing her wand down her back to zip the dress.

*S*S*

Fred stood at the bottom of the stairs with Remus and Ron, trying not to be impatient. "What are they doing up there?"

Severus, walking by, carrying a rather large flower arrangement, snorted, "It's the eternal question, Mr. Weasley."

"What are you guys talking about down there?" Elizabeth's voice floated down the stairs.

"How we're getting older!" Fred called back.

"Well, we're coming, but your sister is having philosophical differences with a shoe."

"We'd like to actually _see_ this wedding," Fred peered up the stairs.

Elizabeth appeared at the top of the stairs and tilted her head to the side. "You know, it's too early in this relationship for you to be annoyed by me."

Fred gulped, watching her come down the stairs to him.

"Don't look at my goddaughter like that," Remus smacked him on the back of the head.

"Yes, sir," Fred said absently as Elizabeth stopped on the last stair so she was a head taller than her fiancé.

"What were you saying about having to wait for me?"

"That it was fine," Fred said quickly.

"And that any time you spent was…?"

"Worth the wait," Fred said, putting his hands on her waist.

"What are you thinking?" Elizabeth hopped down the last stair.

"I'm wondering if Cinderella wore that dress," Fred breathed.

"No glass slippers," Elizabeth joked, putting an arm around his waist. "Ready?"

"Absolutely."


	5. The Wedding

"When we get married," Fred said, tugging at the collar of his dress robes, "we won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You all can wear what you like, and I'll put a full Body-Bind Curse on Mum until it's all over."

"She wasn't too bad this morning, considering," said George. "Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him?"

"Elizabeth," Molly came out of nowhere, hugging the younger witch fiercely. "I'm so sorry."

"For what, Mrs. Weasley?"

"You have to call me 'Mum'," Mrs. Weasley said tearfully. "I'm sorry didn't know Fred was going to do this. We can trade out that ring, no trouble at all."

Elizabeth shared a quick look at Fred and let her eyes fill with tears. "You want to take away my ring?" She covered her mouth with her hand.

"Oh, no, sweetheart…" Mrs. Weasley said quickly. "Only, we have a family ring—

"But Fred picked this out for me," Elizabeth said, letting the tears fall and thanking Water-Witch mascara. She turned and buried her face in Fred's shoulder. "It's… perfect!" She wailed.

"Mum, how could you?" Fred asked, getting in on the scene.

"What is going on over here?" Severus came across the lawn.

"Mrs. Weasley doesn't want me to have my ring," Elizabeth 'sobbed'.

"She does," Fred soothed, putting both arms around her. "Don't you, Mum?"

"Oh, of course, dear. It's a beautiful ring. Don't cry."

"Your mum doesn't want me to be part of your family," Elizabeth cried into Fred's chest.

"Sweetheart," Molly said, "I'm so happy, really!"

"Really?" Elizabeth poked one eye out of Fred's robes to look at Mrs. Weasley.

"Of course! Forget I said anything," Molly assured, patting her shoulder. "I'm going to… check on the food."

When she was across the yard, Fred grinned. "Coast is clear."

Elizabeth laughed and pulled away, accepting the handkerchief Fred handed her and dabbing her face. "Sorry, George, Angelina is going to have to have the ugly ring."

George was looking at her with reverence. "Think of the things we could have done with the fake crying skills of your girl here," he said appreciatively. "You are my favorite sister. Don't tell Ginny."

Elizabeth gave a little mini-bow. "Thank you, I'll be here all week. Tip your waitresses."

Severus ran a hand through his hair. "How many times have I fallen for that, hmm?"

"I would never fake cry with you, Dad," Elizabeth assured, straightening the straps of her green dress. "You'd know I was faking it."

Severus shook his head, but a smile played on his lips. "Dressed appropriately this afternoon, my little snake." He walked away, shaking his head.

"Oh, look," Ron said, gesturing to the edge of the yard with his head. "The crazy train has arrived."

Luna Lovegood was coming toward them, with the most eccentric-looking wizard Elizabeth had ever seen. Slightly cross-eyed, with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candyfloss, he wore a cap whose tassel dangled in front of his nose and robes of an eye-watering shade of egg-yolk yellow. An odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye, glistened from a golden chain around his neck.

"Xenophilius Lovegood," he said, extending a hand to Elizabeth, "Elizabeth Evans, my daughter has told me about you."

"Hello, Elizabeth!" Luna chirped. "Daddy, look," she turned to her father, "one of the gnomes actually bit me on the way in!"

"I'm sorry—

"How wonderful!" Mr. Lovegood interrupted Fred's apology. "Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial! Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today— perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaim in Mermish— do not suppress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!"

"Can I show you to your seats?" Fred asked, gesturing to the chairs set on the grass.

"We'll find our way," Mr. Lovegood assured him. "We'll just follow the Clunkenkens."

"That's probably best," Fred muttered, securing his arm around Elizabeth's waist again. "Thanks for shirking flower duty."

"I'm not good with Herbology," Elizabeth smiled.

"Your hair is much too long, Ronald, for a moment, I thought you were Ginevra. Merlin's beard, what is Xenophilius Lovegood wearing? He looks like an omelet."

Elizabeth turned to see an elderly witch, clutching Ron's arm.

"Auntie Muriel, this is Elizabeth Evans," Fred said. "Elizabeth, Muriel Prewett, my Mum's aunt."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Prewett," Elizabeth said, unsure if she should try to shake the woman's hand. She obviously couldn't stand without holding tight to Ron.

"So you weren't merely boasting, Frederick?" Muriel peered at Elizabeth's face. "You really are dating the Girl-Who-Lived?"

"Actually, Auntie Muriel, we're engaged," Fred said smiling broadly.

"Hmm," Muriel looked at Elizabeth again. "I've just been instructing the bride on how best to wear my tiara," she said, too loudly. "Goblin-made, you know, and been in my family for centuries. She's a good-looking girl, but still— French. You're not French, are you?"

"No, ma'am," Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm from Cokeworth."

"Good," Muriel snapped. "The Weasleys breed like gnomes, there's no need to go international." She looked at Ron. "Find me a seat, young man. I'm a hundred and seven years old. There's no need for me to stand."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Elizabeth said.

"I'm sure it is, yes," Muriel limped off with Ron.

"Sure you still want to be a member of this family?" Fred grinned.

"Too late now," Elizabeth smiled back. "How do you feel about eloping?"

"How do you feel about my mum going on a hunger fast and then telling everyone, in her will, that she died because her daughter-in-law wouldn't have a wedding?"

"Not eloping, then."

"Nightmare, Muriel is," Fred said, pulling again at his collar. "She used to come for Christmas every year, but then she took offense because George and I set off a Dungbomb under her chair. Dad reckons she'll have written us out of her will." He shrugged. "You're probably not going to get to wear her tiara."

"Talking about Muriel?" George reemerged from the tent. "Yeah, she's just told me my ears are lopsided, and told Hermione she had bad posture and skinny ankles."

"I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, he was a right laugh at weddings," Fred said.

"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, yeah, he went a bit off toward the end," conceded George.

"But before he went loopy, he was the life and soul of the party," Fred said. "He used to down an entire bottle of firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his—"

"Yes, he sounds like a real charmer," Hermione said, joining their group. "You were supposed to be helping me with flowers," she looked accusingly at Elizabeth. "George had to protect me from Muriel."

"She approves of my lack-of-French blood," Elizabeth smirked.

"It's time to sit down," Fred said, "or we're going to get run over by the bride." He pulled on his collar. "Is it 900 degrees?"

"Sit," Elizabeth said, sitting in the second row behind the empty seats that would hold Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Carefully, she put her wand at the base of his collar and murmered a charm.

"I love you… sooooo much," Fred said softly as cold spread over his neck and back.

"Watch it," Severus hissed from the row behind where he was sitting with Remus, Tonks, and Mad Eye Moody.

A sense of jittery anticipation had filled the warm tent, the general murmuring broken by occasional spurts of excited laughter. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley strolled up the aisle, smiling and waving at relatives; Mrs. Weasley was wearing a brand-new set of amethyst-colored robes with a matching hat.

A moment later, Bill and Charlie stood up at the front of the marquee, both wearing dress robes, with large white roses in their buttonholes. Fred wolf-whistled, and there was an outbreak of giggling. Then the crowd fell silent as music swelled from what seemed to be the golden balloons.

"Oh!" said Hermione, swiveling around in her seat to look at the entrance.

Fleur was walking up the aisle, her arm through her father's. She was wearing a simple white dress, which seemed to glow. Ginny and Gabrielle followed, both wearing golden dresses.

"Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel. "But I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low cut."

"I have to agree with that," Fred whispered to Elizabeth. "I don't need to see that much of my sister, thanks."

"I think she looks lovely," Elizabeth whispered back.

"Do you, William Arthur, take Fleur Isabelle, to be your wife…"

Fred put his arm around Elizabeth as the ceremony started, and she laid her head on his shoulder, letting the ceremony wash over her.

"…then I declare you bonded for life."

The wizard who was presiding over the ceremony waved his wand high over the heads of Bill and Fleur and a shower of silver starts fell upon them, spiraling around their now entwined figures. As the crowd applauded, the golden balloons overhead burst: Birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their songs and chimes to the noise.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" called the wizard. "If you would please stand up!"

They all did so, and the wizard waved his wand again. The seats on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside. Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth around it, and the golden-jacketed band trooped toward a podium.

"Brilliant," Fred said, guiding their group to a table. "Do you want something to drink?" He gestured to the waiters who had appeared.

"Butterbeer," Hermione said.

"Me too," Ron put in, sitting down.

"Three," Elizabeth smiled.

"Firewhiskey all around," George said, "I'll get it."

"George—

"I'll get the butterbeer," Fred cut her off, kissing her hairline. "I'll drink what George brings you."

He strode away, leaving Elizabeth, Ron, and Hermione at the table.

"Bugger," Ron said, looking behind Elizabeth. "Who invited _him_?"

"Who?" Elizabeth turned to see Viktor Krum striding across the empty dance floor toward them.

"Viktor!" Hermione squeaked. "Umm… how… how are you?"

"Very well," Viktor said, kissing her hand. "Elizabeth, you're looking well."

"Thank you," Elizabeth nodded. "It's nice to see you."

"Fleur invited me," Krum said. "It was a beautiful ceremony." He looked at Elizabeth. "I see congratulations are in order." He gestured to her left hand.

"Thank you," Elizabeth said, blushing a bit.

"Let's dance," Ron said suddenly, standing and grabbing Hermione's hand.

Looking startled, but not unhappy, Hermione followed him out onto the dance floor.

"Are they together, then?" Viktor looked at Elizabeth.

"Sort of," Elizabeth said. "You traveled all this way alone?"

Viktor shrugged. "We share a bond together, the four…three of us… do we not? No others know what it is to do what we've done."

Elizabeth nodded, memories she hadn't let herself think of for a long time, flitting through her head.

"It is a dangerous time," Viktor said, turning the glass of Firewhiskey in his hand to catch the light. "I wish… If I had been the man… the person, I suppose, that you were in that maze," he glanced over at Hermione dancing with Ron. "Perhaps she would have wanted me."

"That has been a long time in the making," Elizabeth said, nodding in their direction. "So… I guess I can assume that you… did not follow in your Headmaster's footsteps?"

Viktor looked at her a moment, then rolled up the sleeves of his robes. Elizabeth looked at his unblemished forearms and nodded.

"The bastard could have killed us all in that maze," Viktor said. "We're lucky he only got one of us." He stood. "Anyway, I see your date is coming back. I just wanted to tell you… if you need me… we fought together once."

Elizabeth wasn't able to speak for a moment, and Viktor walked away, toward Fleur and Bill.

"Butterbeer," Fred said, setting it on the table and sitting beside her.

"Thanks," Elizabeth managed.

"Are you okay?" Fred moved to see her face. "What did Krum want?"

"Nothing," Elizabeth said, forcing a smile. "Just to say hello."

"Betsy," Fred looked concerned. "What did Krum want?"

Elizabeth bit her lip. "Really just to say hello," she said. "It's just… stuff I haven't thought about in awhile."

Fred took both of her hands in his. "You're shaking," he said softly. "Let's go inside."

"It's a party," Elizabeth shook her head.

"It will still be a party later, I promise," Fred said, pulling her up. "A little quiet for a little while." He led her into the house. On the way, he caught Severus' eye over the crowd. The older wizard looked from his daughter to Fred, and gave him a questioning look. Fred shook his head, giving Severus a look that he hoped would keep him from swooping in, at least for a little while.

Elizabeth snagged a glass of Firewhiskey off a waiter's tray as they walked by, and looked at Fred. "What?"

Fred raised an eyebrow. "I didn't say anything. You're seventeen."

"Right," Elizabeth said, going through the backdoor and into the kitchen. "It's not that I forget, you know."

"Forget what?" Fred asked, watching her put the glass down on the counter and start to pace.

"Cedric. All the others. It's just that sometimes, I go for days when I don't think about it. I don't see his face, and I don't remember… I don't remember the people Voldemort has hurt. I get so wrapped up in the people He could."

Fred frowned. "You don't think about it because you need to stay sane. No one expects you to hold all those people in your mind all the time."

"I couldn't save Cedric," Elizabeth said quietly, leaning against the counter. "And there will be more."

"Yes," Fred said simply.

Elizabeth looked at him. "Usually, this is where you are my happy cheerleader."

"I can't," Fred put both hands on the counter, one on each side of her hips. "People are going to die. He's going to kill them. You're going to kill them. Probably everyone we know will either kill or be killed. The only thing we really have left is that we're right. And we have the chance to win, so that our kids never have to think about this."

"And if we don't make it?"

"Then Ron's kids or Bill's kids or George's kids. The point is," he locked eyes with her, "this is the last time you have to be unsure. You can be unsure right now. Right this moment, you can be unsure. I'll stand right here for whatever you need. But after this, it's like coming out of the changing room and onto the Quidditch field. No fear."

Elizabeth nodded, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He held her, whispering soothing words in her ear. They had been that way for quite awhile when Severus came in the back door behind his daughter. He caught Fred's eye, and, without comment, took the glass of Firewhiskey and carried it back outside.

Suddenly, Elizabeth pulled back "Gregorovitch! He's a wand maker!"

"From your dream?"

"He made Viktor's wand. That's why I thought it had something to do with Quidditch."

"And Voldemort is looking for him?"

Elizabeth nodded. "I just don't know why."

*S*S*

"And I'll tell you something else," Muriel said later in the evening, hiccupping slightly. "I think Bathilda has spilled the beans to Rita Skeeter. All those hints in Skeeter's interview about an important source close to the Dumbledores— goodness knows she was there all through the Ariana business, and it would fit."

"Ariana?" Elizabeth asked. "Dumbledore's sister?"

"His _squib_ sister," Muriel said. "Doesn't say much for Dumbledore, does it, that he let his mother kill his sister."

"Muriel," Elphias Doge protested. "Don't be silly."

"Bathilda Bagshot? The author of _A History of Magic_?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Doge said. "A most gifted magical historian and an old friend of Albus'."

"Quite gaga these days, I've heard," said Auntie Muriel cheerfully.

"Then Skeeter shouldn't have spoken with her," Doge said hotly.

"Even if she is completely cuckoo," Muriel said, "I'm sure she'd still have old photographs, maybe even letters. She knew the Dumbledores for years… Well worth the trip to Godric's Hollow, I'd have thought."

Elizabeth choked on her butterbeer. "Bathilda Bagshot lives in Godric's Hollow?"

"Oh yes, she's been there forever. The Dumbledores moved there after Percival was imprisoned, and she was their neighbor."

Elizabeth considered this. Perhaps the trip to Godric's Hollow would not be solely for personal benefit.

The moment, however, was shattered, as something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus' mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"_The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."_

Elizabeth looked around wildly for Fred, but felt Hermione's hard jab in the side. "Go," she hissed. "They'll follow."

Elizabeth knew she was right. They'd planned for this. She only wished she had more time. Closing her eyes, she went into her first solo Apparation.

*S*S*

Number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging was still a perfectly ordinary house, on a perfectly ordinary street. Elizabeth and Hermione popped into existence in the back garden and waited.

They didn't have to wait long. Two more pops sounded as Ron and Fred appeared, one after the other.

"_Lumos!" _Elizabeth cast, holding her wand up to Fred's face. "How did you ask me to the Yule Ball?"

"A talking flower," Fred answered immediately. "Though why I had to ask you is still a mystery."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and hugged him. "Sorry, had to check."

"Remus would be proud," Fred laughed.

Hermione and Ron were looking in the windows. "Blimey, Elizabeth," Ron said. "Is that your cousin?"

Elizabeth looked in as well, "That's Dudley, yeah." She watched as Dudley sat in front of the TV, stuffing himself with something on a plate.

"Can we change here?" Hermione asked.

"Sure," Elizabeth shrugged. "Just stun them. Or whatever."

As if on cue, Petunia and Vernon wandered into the room, Petunia with more food. Hermione raised her wand, and a glazed look came over the eyes of all three Muggles.

"Let's go," she said. "The spell only lasts half an hour."

"We won't need that long," Elizabeth led them through the back door. Hermione rummaged in the small bag she carried, handing out Muggle clothing to everyone.

It took Fred five minutes to unwind himself from his dress robes and change into jeans and a t-shirt. When he came out of the downstairs washroom, he found Elizabeth staring into the cupboard under the stairs.

"Looking for a broom?" he joked.

Elizabeth shook her head, and ducked down, casting _lumos_ again to see into the cramped space. "Just looking," she said. "It's still there."

"What's still there?" Fred crouched beside her.

"That," Elizabeth pointed at a beam that supported one of the stairs. "See?"

Fred looked and saw "Elizabeth Evans Was Here" scratched into the wood.

"Can you believe that I thought I had to leave that? That no one would know me?" Elizabeth laughed a little.

"You hid out in here?" Fred asked, and Elizabeth was hit with the realization that he knew very little about her life before she'd come to live with her father.

"I lived here," Elizabeth pointed to a dusty mattress that was still shoved under the stairs. "The first ten years of my life."

*S*S*

In hindsight, perhaps it wasn't the best time to fill the love of her life in on her past. Especially with the perpetrators of most of her childhood suffering so close by.

"Really, Fred, it wasn't that bad."

"_Wasn't that bad_?" Fred frowned, his right hand clasped around his wand. "They kept you like an animal!"

Elizabeth put her hands on either side of his face. "Do I look worse for the wear?"

"Not the point," Fred snapped glaring at the mattress. "What else did they do to you?"

"Nothing worth talking about now," Elizabeth said sliding one hand down his arm.

"I'll be the judge of that. _Talk_," Fred said firmly.

"They were afraid of me," Elizabeth said pressing closer to him. "They didn't know how to handle what I was, what we are. They're bigots, and they used me as a house elf, but they aren't evil. They're just stupid."

"They'll be dead once I get my hands on them."

"Get your hands on who?" Hermione asked, coming out of the back parlor, stuffing her dress into the small bag.

"The Muggles," Fred growled and turned toward the living room where the Dursleys sat. "I'm just about to—" He looked at her empty wand hand, and then at his fiancé. "Elizabeth Evans, did you just disarm me?"

"Yes," Elizabeth said, grabbing the jeans and shirt that Hermione offered her and headed for the back parlor. "I'm going to change now."

"I could kill them with my hands, you know!" Fred shouted.

"I'm sure you could, my white knight, but just wait a second, alright?" Elizabeth called back, quickly changing. She pulled her hair down from the fancy up-do and then swept it into a ponytail.

"A second isn't going to help. I'm going to put my hands around that man's neck."

"You might want to start with Aunt Petunia, you probably can't get your hands around Uncle Vernon's neck. He's got more than the usual amount, you know."

"I will, after I lock them in this cupboard."

Ron came out of the washroom. "What's all the yelling?"

"Fred just discovered where Elizabeth spent her first ten years," Hermione said.

"You two knew about this?" Fred looked at them with a glare that threatened to incinerate them.

Ron rolled his eyes and steered his brother out of the hall and into the backyard. "She doesn't like to talk about it. She didn't tell you because she doesn't want you to see that little room every time you look at her."

"Room?" Fred gritted his teeth. "It's not a room."

"And you can't make it one by choking Muggles. So cool it."

Fred growled, and crossed his arms, but mad no move to return to the house. Moments later, Elizabeth and Hermione came out the back door, leaving the Dursley's frozen. "The spell will wear off," Hermione assured.

Elizabeth held up Fred's wand.

"Can I give this back to you?"

Fred scowled. "I'm 'cool'."

"Really?" Elizabeth held the wand back.

"No, but I won't attack them," Fred ground out.

Elizabeth handed him his wand and kissed his cheek. "Save your rage, love. We're going to need it."

Fred ground his teeth, but nodded. "I'll just take it out on Voldemort."


	6. On the Run

"We'll head to the countryside," Hermione said. "We can Disapparate from here."

"Wait," Ron froze, drawing his wand and turning toward the bushes. "What's that?"

Two men in Muggle clothing appeared out of the shrubbery, and the other three wasted no time drawing their wands as well. Elizabeth, sensing the Death Eaters' movement, shoved Fred to the ground, as the hedge behind them burst into flames.

"_Stupefy_!" Elizabeth yelled hitting one of them in the face with a jet of red light. The man slumped sideways, unconscious. His companion fired at Ron, shining black ropes flew from his wand-tip and bound Ron head to foot. Elizabeth sent another Stunning Spell, but the spell missed.

"_Expulso_!" bellowed the Death Eater, and the Dursley's porch table blew up, the force throwing Hermione into the shrubs behind her.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" shouted Fred, and the Death Eater fell forward like a statue to land with a crunching thud on remains of the patio furniture.

Hermione crawled out from the bushes. "_D-dffindo_," she said, pointing her wand at Ron, who roared in pain as she slashed open the knee of his jeans, leaving a deep cut. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Ron, my hand's shaking! _Diffindo!_"

The severed ropes fell away. Ron got to his feet, shaking his arms to regain feeling in them. Elizabeth picked through the furniture debris to where the first Death Eater was sprawled.

"I should have recognized him, he was there when Draco let them in to Hogwarts," she said. She turned over the other Death Eater with her foot. The man's eyes moved rapidly between Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"That's Dolohov," said Ron, mopping the wound on his knee. "I recognize him from old wanted posters. I think the big one's Thorfinn Rowle."

"Never mind what they're called!" said Hermione a little hysterically. "How did they find us? What are we going to do?"

"They'd kill us," Fred said. "They had a good go just now."

Elizabeth shook her head. "We just need to wipe their memories," she said. "It's better like that, it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it'd be obvious we were here."

"You're the boss," said Ron, sounding relieved. "But I've never done a Memory Charm."

"Nor have I," said Hermione, "but I know the theory."

She took a deep, calming breath, then pointed her wand at Dolohov's foread and said, "_Obliviate_."

At once, Dolohov's eyes became unfocused and dreamy.

"Brilliant," Elizabeth said. "Take care of the other one." She turned to Fred. "How did they find us?"

Fred shrugged, "There's no way to follow, aside from the Trace. You haven't got that anymore, right?"

Elizabeth felt contaminated, tainted.

"No, if there was a way to Trace adults, Snape would have figured it out," Ron quipped.

"We'll go to Grimmauld Place," Elizabeth said.

The others looked at her. "Why?"

"If I've still got the Trace on me, we'll have whole crowds of Death Eaters everywhere we go."

Fred nodded. "We can send a message to the Order once we get there. See if anyone knows how we were followed."

Elizabeth looked at the Death Eaters. "We have to release them," she said quietly. "We can't let them lie here."

"On the count of three then," Fred said. "And then we go." He counted, and Elizabeth cast the reversal spells just before they all turned on the spot and vanished into the compressing darkness once more.

Seconds later, Elizabeth was looking up at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The four raced up the stone steps and Elizabeth tapped the front door once with her wand. They heard a series of metallic clicks and a clatter of a chain, then the door swung open with a creak and they hurried over the threshold.

"Hello?" Elizabeth shouted, leading the way into the kitchen.

"Sirius isn't much of a housekeeper," Ron said, looking in the refrigerator.

"He spends most of his time at our house," Elizabeth said. "I don't think he likes being alone."

Hermione waved her wand to ignite the old gas lamps, then sat at the kitchen table. Elizabeth leaned against the counter. "I think we should stay here tonight," Elizabeth said. "Obviously, my dad was wrong. Voldemort still wants to kill me."

Suddenly, a silver doe dashed into the room, and spoke in Severus' voice.

"_Family and Weasleys safe. Do not reply, we are being watched."_

The Patronus dissolved into nothingness. Ron let out a noise between a whimper and a groan, and dropped onto the sofa. Elizabeth felt Fred step behind her, and leaned back against him. She turned and laid her head on his chest, breathing easy for the first time in hours.

"Easy, Betsy," Fred's voice rumbled into her ear as he rocked back and forth gently. "Don't pass out on me."

"I'm okay," Elizabeth said shakily.

"Me too," Fred half laughed, letting his head drop next to hers.

"About earlier," Elizabeth began, kissed his temple. "You know I'd tell you if it mattered, right?"

"I know you'd tell me if you felt like I could handle it," Fred said pointedly. "Don't expect me to just forget it. You were little, and alone, and they didn't treat you well. So I'm pissed. And if I have a chance in the future, I'm going to make their lives hell."

"Fred…"

"No," he shook his head. "You didn't discuss it with me, so I don't have to discuss it with you. I'm pretty sure that's a rule."

Elizabeth sighed. "I love you, but you're insane."

"I love you too," Fred kissed her forehead. "Do you think you can sleep now?"

"As long as I don't have to do it alone," Elizabeth said, a smile playing on her face. "Do you think you can sleep?"

Fred paused a moment. "Yeah. Let's go lie down."

Elizabeth went up the stairs with him, leaving Hermione and Ron to work out their own sleeping arrangements. She hit the top step when her forehead flared, the pain sending waves of nausea to the pit of her stomach. It reached a fever pitch as she passed by the door to the bathroom.

"Right out," she muttered, and bolted into the room, closing the door behind her with trembling hands. She grasped her pounding head and fell to the floor, then in an explosion of agony, she felt the rage that did not belong to her possess her soul, saw a long room lit only by firelight, and the great blond Death Eater she'd stunned on the floor, screaming and writhing, and a slighter figure standing over him, wand outstretched, while Elizabeth spoke in a high, cold, merciless voice.

"More, Rowle, or shall we end it and feed you to Nagini? Lord Voldemort is not sure that he will forgive this time… You called me back for this, to tell me that Elizabeth Evans has escaped again? Draco, give Rowle another taste of our displeasure… Do it, or Nagini can have you!"

A log fell in the fire, flames reared, their light darting across a terrified, pointed white face. With a sense of emerging from deep water, Elizabeth drew heavy breaths and opened her eyes.

She was lying on the cold black marble floor, Fred pounding on the door. "Betsy?" She thought he must have been hammering for quite awhile because he came in. As he fell to his knees beside her, she groggily wondered why there was a lock on the door in a Wizarding house. Just one good _Alohomora_ and the door would be open. Unless the lock was special—

"Come on," Fred said, putting a hand under her head. "You can't lie on the bathroom floor."

"He's angry," Elizabeth managed, not making any move to get up.

"Yeah, well. Me too," Fred said, deciding that it was easier to scoop her up and carry her to the bedroom.

"He's still looking for me," Elizabeth said as he laid her against the pillows. "He lied to Dad."

"Voldemort lied? Amazing," Fred said, rolling his eyes.

"You're snotty," Elizabeth rubbed her forehead and sat up, carefully. "He's making Draco torture the Death Eaters that attacked us tonight."

"Are you sure he isn't enjoying it?" Fred stripped off his t-shirt and jeans.

"He had to be threatened," Elizabeth looked at him. "Nice boxers."

Fred grinned as Snitches flew around on his underwear. "I would like to say, for the record, that these are apparently the ones you gave Hermione to pack for me."

"She wanted to go through your drawers herself," Elizabeth shrugged. "But I objected to a woman in your underwear drawer."

"You couldn't have grabbed, say, the non-animated ones?"

"I packed those too," Elizabeth smiled, "Hermione must have given you those as a joke."

"Yep, it's a real knee-slapper of a day," Fred groaned, pulling the blankets back and flopping down on the sheets.

"I have to do something really quick," Elizabeth said. "I'll be right back."

"Five minutes, Betsy. I'm not kidding," Fred threatened. "If I find you on the floor again, I'm tying you to the bed."

Elizabeth considered the responses she could have to that, but settled for rolling her eyes and heading downstairs.

*S*S*

Severus Snape sat in the Burrow, head in his hands.

"The Patronus didn't come back," Remus assured him. "That means she's okay."

"It means she's alive," Severus corrected.

"She's not stupid enough to send a note," Sirius said, rubbing his face. "You'll just have to wait until it's safe."

Severus looked over at Arthur who was asleep in an armchair. "We have to bury Alastor."

"Not until the vultures have backed off," Sirius said. "I won't have him picked out of the ground and used as some kind of trophy."

"Of course not," Severus said tiredly. "But keeping the body in the house…"

"It's not ideal," Remus agreed. "But the man deserves to be laid to rest. Peacefully."

There was a scratching at the window and all three men's heads jerked up. Sirius went to the window. "Anyone recognize this owl?"

Severus and Remus shook their heads. "Let it in," Remus said, one hand on his wand.

Sirius opened the pane, and the owl flew in, straight to Severus, and dropped something on his lap before turning and flying away.

"What is it?" Remus asked.

Severus paused, then a slow smile spread over his face. "A message."

The owl had brought a rose, the petals red on the outside and green on the inside.

*S*S*

Elizabeth woke the next morning, wrapped in Fred's arms. Everything was quiet except for his breathing, slow and deep. She looked up at the shadowy ceiling. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she'd been standing at the entrance to the marquee, revealing in her diamond ring. It seemed a lifetime away. She looked at her left hand now and her mind wandered to Horcruxes, of the daunting, complex mission Dumbledore had left her.

Desperate for something to do, for distraction, she slipped out of Fred's embrace, replacing her body with a pillow. She crept out of the room, illuminating her wand once she hit the landing. She carefully climbed the stairs.

On the topmost landing there were only two doors. The one facing her bore a nameplate reading SIRIUS. Elizabeth had never gone in Sirius' childhood bedroom before. When they were at Headquarters, Sirius slept in one of the bedrooms on the second landing. She pushed open the door, holding her wand high to cast light as widely as possible. The room was spacious and must once have been handsome. There was a large bed with a carved wooden headboard, a tall window obscured by long velvet curtains, and a chandelier thickly coated in dust with candle stubs still resting in its sockets, solid wax hanging in frostlike drips. A fine film of dust covered the pictures on the walls and the bed's headboard; a spider's web stretched between the chandelier and the top of the large wooden wardrobe.

Elizabeth looked around. Sirius had cleaned the main part of the house, and all the bedrooms, except, apparently, this one. There were several large Gryffindor banners, faded scarlet and gold, under the layer of dust. There were many pictures of Muggle motorcycles, and also (Elizabeth banked this information away for future teasing) several posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls. The only wall item that contained wizards was a picture of four Hogwarts students standing arm in arm, laughing at the camera.

Sirius was easy to pick out, carelessly handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger than Elizabeth had seen it. To his left was James Potter, to his right, Pettigrew. Elizabeth chose to skim over the traitorous rat, but she looked at James. She didn't remember him. Not really. Had she called him Daddy? Had her mother taught her to do that? At a year old, she would have known that James was not Severus. How long had it taken her to forget her real father?

Pushing that idea out of her head she looked to James' left. Remus, dressed in a slightly shabby grey sweater. He looks happy, Elizabeth thought. Certainly happier than he had been lately.

"Betsy?" Fred's voice came up the stairs, sounding strained.

"I'm here," she called back, coming out onto the landing.

"The five-minute thing we discussed last night?" Fred took the stairs two at a time. "It still applies."

"Sorry," Elizabeth said. "I woke up and decided to see what I could find up here."

"Lot of dark magic, probably," Fred said. "Come downstairs, we'll find something for breakfast."

Elizabeth nodded and started to follow, but stopped when the other bedroom door caught her eye.

Do Not Enter

Without the Express Permission of

Regulus Arcturus Black

"Wait," she said, drawing her wand. "Just a look in here."

She pointed her wand at the handle and said, "_Alohomora_." There was a click, and the door swung open. Fred stepped over the threshold first, holding his wand out for light.

The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was painstakingly painted over the bed. Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage.

"They're all about Voldemort," Elizabeth said, examining them. "Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters…"

"What are we looking for?" Fred asked.

"The locket, of course," Elizabeth said. "The real one."

"A grown man steals a Horocrux and then sends it back to hide it in his toy box?" Fred asked incredulously.

"Somewhere in the house, then," Elizabeth said, looking through the wardrobe. Regulus had apparently been a tidy child, because there wasn't much clutter to go through. The Horcrux was not there.

"Didn't Sirius clean out the rest of the house?"

"Yeah," Elizabeth said dejectedly. "He wanted it cleaned up before he let me come over here, but circumstances didn't give him much time." She laughed. "He was throwing things away, and Kreacher kept nicking things back from the trash." She paused, and looked at Fred, hope flooding back. "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen."

She ran out of the room and down the stairs, Fred running behind her. They made so much noise that Hermione and Ron came out of one of the guest rooms. "What's going on?"

"Come look with me," Elizabeth said, as if they knew what she was talking about. She ran down into the kitchen and skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher's cupboard, wrenching it open. There was a nest of dirty old blankets in which the house-elf had once slept, but they were no longer glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. Elizabeth snatched up the blankets and shook them, yielding only a dead mouse.

Fred looked disappointed. Hermione and Ron looked confused.

"It's not over yet," said Elizabeth, raising her voice and calling, "Kreacher!"

There was a loud crack, and the house-elf that Elizabeth had so reluctantly inherited from Sirius' near-death experience appeared out of nowhere in front of the cold and empty fireplace.

"Mistress," croaked Kreacher in his bullfrog's voice, and he bowed low, muttering to his knees, "back in my _real_ Mistress's old house with two blood-traitors and a Mudblood—

"I forbid you to call anyone 'blood traitor' or 'Mudblood,'" Elizabeth growled. "I've got a question for you, and you'd better answer it truthfully. Understand?"

"Yes, Mistress," said Kreacher, bowing low again.

"Two years ago," Elizabeth said, "there was a big gold locket in this house," she was improvising now. Hoping that her hunch was correct. "Sirius threw it out. Did you steal it back?"

There was a moment's silence, during which Kreacher straightened to look Elizabeth full in the face. Then he said, "Yes."

"Where is it now?" asked Elizabeth quickly as Ron and Hermione seemed to catch on to what was happening.

Kreacher closed his eyes as though he could not bear to see their reactions to his next word. "Gone."

"Gone?" Elizabeth echoed. "What do you mean, 'gone'?"

The elf shivered. He swayed.

"Kreacher," Elizabeth snapped, channeling every bit of her Snape-given authority, "I order you—

"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. "Mundungus Fletcher stole it all: Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and— and—"

Kreacher was gulping for air, his hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.

"— and the locket, Master Regulus' locket! Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed in his orders!"

Elizabeth reacted instinctively as Kreacher lunged for the poker standing beside the fireplace. She reached out and grabbed him by the arm. "Kreacher, I order you to stay still!"

She felt the elf freeze and released him. Kreacher curled up on the floor, rocking back and forth.

"Kreacher," Elizabeth knelt beside the elf, "How do you know Fletcher stole the locket?"

"Kreacher saw him!" gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his mouth. "Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher's cupboard with his hands full of Kreacher's treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but Fletcher laughed and ran…"

"You called the locket 'Mater Regulus'," said Elizabeth. "Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, tell me everything you know about that locket!"

Kreacher sobbed into his knees, but spoke. "Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for her was a bad boy and broke my Mistress' heart with his lawless ways. But Master Regulus had proper pride. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and Muggle-borns. When he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve... But one day, a year later, Master Regulus came down to see Kreacher…"

Kreacher rocked faster. "…he said that the Dark Lord required an elf."

"Voldemort needed an elf?" Elizabeth repeated.

"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, and honor for Master Regulus and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do… and then to come home."

Elizabeth closed her eyes, knowing then what came next. She listened to Kreacher describe the cave by the sea. And the boat. And the island. And the potion in the basin. Voldemort forced the elf to drink it. And left him to die on the island. In a cave that Elizabeth knew that no one could Apparate in or out of.

"Of course," Hermione said, as if reading her mind. "Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice, just like all the purebloods…" Ron and Fred gave her pointed looks, which she ignored and pressed on. "It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."

"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," said Kreacher, his voice suddenly more like a professor lecturing than a house-elf. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home."

"So what happened when you got home?" Elizabeth asked. "What did Regulus say when you told him what had happened?"

"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," Kreacher said, rocking again. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then… Master came to find Kreacher one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell. He asked Kreacher to take him to the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord…"

"And he made you drink the potion?" Elizabeth asked.

Kreacher shook his head and wept. Elizabeth sat back on her heels, understanding, but not wanting to hear what was going to happen next.

"Master Regulus took a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring out of his eyes. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets… And he ordered… Kreacher to leave… without him…but to destroy the first locket. And he drank all the potion… and Kreacher swapped the lockets… and watched…as Master Regulus…was dragged beneath the water…and…"

"Oh, Kreacher!" Hermione cried, dropping to her knees beside the elf. She tried to hug him, but at once he was on his feet, cringing away from her, quite obviously repulsed.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would his real Mistress say?"

"I told you not to call her 'Mudblood'!" Elizabeth snapped, but the elf was already punishing himself. He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.

"Stop him!" Hermione yelped.

"Kreacher— stop!" shouted Elizabeth.

The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering. Elizabeth had never seen anything so pitiful.

"So you brought the locket home," she said quietly, determined to get the important part of the story. "And you tried to destroy it?"

"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work. It would not open. Kreacher failed to obey orders! His real Mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared, and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened because Master Regulus had forbidden him to tell any of the family…"

"Kreacher," Elizabeth said carefully, not at all sure she could give this pitiful creature an order. "I want you to go and find Mundungus Fletcher. We need to find out where Master Regulus' locket is. We have to finish his work."

"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" Kreacher croaked.

"And bring him here, to Grimmauld Place," said Elizabeth. "Do you think you could do that for us?"

Kreacher nodded and got to his feet, disappearing with a loud _crack_.

*S*S*

Kreacher did not return that day. Or the next. Or the day after that. Elizabeth was in the kitchen escaping the pressure she felt every time another person in their party looked at her. Like she was supposed to know what to do next. She was leaning against the counter, wishing she could live up to that pressure, when there was a tap on the front door, then metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain.

A figure appeared in the doorway, and Elizabeth pointed her wand at its chest. "Don't move!"

At the sound of her yell, the curtains hiding Mrs. Black flew open and she began to scream, "Mudbloods and filth dishonoring my house—

Ron, Hermione, and Fred came crashing down the stairs, wands raised.

"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"

"Oh, thank goodness," said Hermione weakly, pointing her wand at Mrs. Black, closing the curtains. Ron lowered his wand as well, but Fred and Elizabeth did not.

"Show yourself!" Fred shouted.

Lupin moved forward into the lamplight, hands held high in the gesture of surrender.

"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, and when Elizabeth Evans was a baby, I gave her a stuffed wolf that she calls Lunus."


	7. Coward

"Oh, all right," Elizabeth rolled her eyes and lowered her wand. "I had to check. No need to show off."

"Speaking as your ex-Defense teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. You two," Remus pointed at Ron and Hermione, "shouldn't be quite so quick to lower your defenses."

"Yes, sir," Hermione said, looking embarrassed.

Remus opened his arms and swept Elizabeth up. "Your father owes me five Galleons."

"Why?"

"I bet him that you'd come here." Remus said. "Though he'll be sorry he didn't listen to me."

"Where did he think we were?"

"Fred's shop," Remus looked down at her. "We're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters outside."

"I know," Elizabeth said. "I saw them through the window."

"I had to Apparate very precisely onto the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there. They're staking out everywhere that's got a connection to you."

"Where is Dad?"

"Spinner's End," Remus said. "He's in quite a bit of danger, now that it's clear Voldemort wants you. We're all supposed to be holed up there, but I snuck out."

"What do you mean, 'supposed to be'?"

Remus sighed. "Severus is… nesting? He's not letting any of us, Sirius, Dora, or me, out of his sight." He walked them into the living room. "I'd have been here earlier, but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me. So you came here straight after the wedding?"

"No," Elizabeth shook her head. "Only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters at the Dursleys'."

Remus raised both eyebrows. "What?"

They explain what happened, all the time Remus looking aghast.

"But how did they find you so quickly? It's impossible to track anyone who Apparates, unless you grab hold of them as they disappear!"

"Yeah, we know that," Elizabeth shrugged. "But if they were searching for me, I guess they went to every place where there was a connection. Even a small one."

"A _very_ small one," Fred glowered.

Remus looked at Elizabeth. "Is he okay?"

"_He_ discovered the cupboard under the stairs," Fred answered. "And _he_ was not pleased."

"But _he_ agreed not to talk about it anymore," Elizabeth warned. She turned back to Remus. "What happened at the wedding?"

"The Death Eaters searched the Burrow from top to bottom," Lupin went on. "They found the ghoul, but didn't want to get too close. Then they interrogated those of us who remained for hours."

"Dad?" Elizabeth's eyes widened.

"He's alright," Remus assured. "He's had worse. But…" he paused, as if he didn't want to say what came next. "Alastor is dead."

"What?" Hermione almost dropped the tea she was pouring.

"He fought them," Remus said, closing his eyes briefly. "As they arrived. I don't know what he was thinking. It was a coordinated attack. At the same time they were smashing up the wedding, more Death Eaters were forcing their way into every Order-connected house in the country. But there were no other deaths." He stopped again. "They used the Cruciatus Curse on Dora's family. They're all right. Shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay."

"Are they bothering to give an excuse for torturing Elizabeth's whereabouts out of people?" Hermione asked. "Now that they've got the Ministry behind them, I mean."

Wordlessly, Lupin pulled out a folded copy of the Daily Prophet and handed it to Elizabeth. She smoothed out the paper. A huge photograph of her face filled the front page. She read the headline over it:

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING CONCERNING

THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

"I'm sorry, Sevling," Remus frowned.

"Surely everyone realizes what is going on?" Fred ran a hand through his hair. "Anyone that thinks Betsy killed Dumbledore—

"She's the daughter of a Death Eater, from what everyone believes," Remus sighed. "And she _did_ kill Greyback. The new 'Ministry' is holding that up as the murder of one of their own. No matter Voldemort's personal ideology about what should be done with beasts like us."

Elizabeth gave him a withering glare. "You aren't allowed to call yourself that."

"So Death Eaters have taken over the _Daily Prophet_?" Hermione asked furiously.

Remus nodded. "The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," he sighed. "The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned. He's been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."

"Why didn't Voldemort declare himself Minister of Magic?" asked Ron.

Lupin laughed humorlessly. "He doesn't need to. Effectively, he is the Minister, but why should he sit behind a desk? His puppet is taking care of everyday business, leaving Voldemort free to extend his power beyond the Ministry. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion. Remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty, and fear."

"And he is making it so that people are afraid of me?" Elizabeth frowned.

"And your cause," Remus nodded. "Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns." He gestured to the paper. "Look at page two."

Hermione flipped the page and looked at the article. As she read, her face got redder and more twisted. "Muggle-born registration?"

"Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak," Remus said sadly. "They're supposed to have 'stolen' magic."

"That's ridiculous," Fred said. "If you could steal magic, there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"

"I know," Lupin said. "Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close Wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment."

Ron looked fierce. "What if purebloods and half-bloods swear a Muggle-born's part of their family? I'll tell everyone Hermione's my cousin—

Hermione covered Ron's hand with hers and squeezed. "Thank you, Ron, but I couldn't let you—

"You won't have a choice," said Ron, gripping her hand. "I'll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it."

"Bossy runs in the family, I see," Elizabeth took Fred's hand.

"Ron, we're on the run with Elizabeth Evans, the most wanted person in the country, I don't think it matters. If I was planning on going back to school it would be different. What's Voldemort going to do with Hogwarts?"

"It's compulsory to attend now." Remus said. "That was announced yesterday. Not only is Elizabeth wanted, but now you are all criminals, because you did not return to school."

"We're all of age," Hermione protested.

"It doesn't matter." Remus shook his head. "You and Elizabeth are on a truancy list somewhere. I think Fred is probably fine, having left a year ago, and everyone thinks Ron is sick. But the girls are in trouble." He sighed. "This is all by way of telling you to trust no one. Which is why I thought you might need some extra man power."

"Man power?"

"I might be of use to you. You know what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection."

Elizabeth hesitated. It was a very tempting offer. She'd missed her godfather greatly over the past few days. She always did in times of stress.

Hermione looked puzzled. "But what about Tonks?"

"What about her?" said Lupin.

"Well," said Hermione, "you're married! How does she feel about you going away with us?"

"Tonks will be perfectly safe," Remus said, his voice sounding oddly cold. "She'll be at her parents' house."

"Remus," Elizabeth said tentatively, "is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine, thank you," Remus said firmly.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow in a Snape-like gesture "Remus."

Remus sighed, and with the air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant, he admitted, "Tonks is going to have a baby."

"Congratulations," Ron and Hermione chorused.

"That's wonderful," Fred said, reaching out to shake Remus' hand.

Elizabeth was quiet, her eyes narrow. Remus looked at her, squirming a bit under her gaze.

"Just to be clear," Elizabeth said slowly. "You want to leave Tonks at her parents' house and come away with us?"

"She'll be perfectly safe there, they'll look after her," Remus said. He spoke with a finality bordering on indifference. "I'm sure Severus would want me to stick with you."

"I'm not," Elizabeth said, feeling her ire rise. "I'm pretty sure Dad would want to know that you weren't willfully leaving your own child, actually. If he'd wanted you to go with me, I bet he would have said so."

Remus' face drained of color. Suddenly, no one wanted to look at Remus or Elizabeth.

"You don't understand," Remus said at last.

"Explain it, then," Elizabeth demanded.

"I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I did it against by better judgment and I have regretted it very much ever since."

"I see," Elizabeth crossed her arms, "so you're just going to dump her and the kid and run off with us?"

Remus sprang to his feet, his glare so fierce that Elizabeth suddenly saw how he could change into a wolf. "Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast!" He threw up his hands. "You've only ever seen me under your father's protection! You don't know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don't you see what I've done? Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf! And the child… the child… My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I'm convinced of it! How can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"

"Remus!" Hermione protested. "Don't say that. How could any child be ashamed of you?"

"I've never been ashamed of him," Elizabeth stood, meeting her godfather glare to glare. "Until now, that is." She wasn't sure where the rage was coming from, but she let it carry her on. "I suppose I always thought that the 'god' part of 'godfather' was a bit of formality. That you saw yourself as my dad. But all along you never wanted a kid, did you? When my dad found out about me, he came running. Grandma said that he about splinched himself in his hurry. And you think that he'd applaud you for abandoning your kid to go on an adventure with us?"

"Now you listen to me, young lady," Remus fumed. "This is not about a desire for… danger or personal glory! How dare you—

"You don't have a right to tell me anything," Elizabeth snapped. "If you don't want to be a father, than you can just see yourself out right now. Obviously, my mum was the better judge of character when she chose Sirius—

"Elizabeth," Fred said sharply, standing beside her. "Stop."

"I'd never have believed this," Elizabeth glared into Remus' livid face. "The man who taught me to fight dementors. A coward."

Remus drew his wand, clutching it so hard Elizabeth thought it might break.

"Hex me," Elizabeth challenged, and waited while Remus simply stared at her, enraged. "Like I said. A coward." She turned on her heel and went upstairs.

"Remus, she didn't mean it," Ron started, but Lupin just drew his cloak around himself and stormed toward the front door.

"Remus, come back!" Hermione called, but a moment later they heard the door slam.

Fred pressed his lips together in a thin line. "You two stay here," he ordered, striding purposefully toward the stairs.

Hermione and Ron were all too happy to busy themselves on the lower levels of the house.

Upstairs, Elizabeth was standing at the window, looking at the Death Eaters that had staked out Headquarters.

"You shouldn't have said those things to him," Fred said, not beating around the bush as he closed the door.

"He had it coming to him."

"No, he didn't," Fred said firmly. "I've never seen you speak to him like that, and I hope I never do again."

Elizabeth turned toward him, and Fred's expression softened at the tears in her eyes.

"I shouldn't have called him a coward."

"No, you shouldn't," Fred said, laying his hands on her shoulders.

"But he's acting like one."

"All the same," Fred frowned at her.

"I know," Elizabeth said softly. "But if it makes him go back to Tonks, it'll be worth it, won't it?"

Fred looked unconvinced, and Elizabeth looked down at her feet, thinking of her father. Would Severus back what she'd said, or would he be angry that she dared treat her godfather that way?

*S*S*

"Where have you been?" Severus asked when Remus stormed into the house.

"No where," Remus snapped.

"Lupin," Severus narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing," Remus headed up the stairs, slamming the door to the room he and Tonks shared.

"I've got a new teenager in the house," Severus shook his head and looked at Sirius. "What's wrong with him?"

"No idea," Sirius shrugged. "But you should go up and see."

"Me?" Severus raised an eyebrow. "Do I look like Molly Weasley to you?"

"Just in the eyes," Sirius said, turning the page in the magazine he was reading. "And sometimes you get this way you hold your hips—

"Shut up," Severus snapped.

"It's what his _wife_ is for," Sirius said. "Where is Tonks?"

"Does anyone else find it strange that we call a woman by a name that is no longer hers?"

"No," Sirius shrugged again. "I think it's strange her parents named her Nymphadora. Besides, we've already got a 'Lupin'."

"I don't know why I speak to you," Severus rolled his eyes.

"I'm not quite sure either, but I think it has something to do with my winning looks and charm."

Severus just snorted. They sat in silence for twenty minutes before Remus came back down the stairs and sat heavily in the other armchair. "Your daughter is in London."

"You saw her?" Severus put his newspaper down and sat forward in his chair.

"The four of them are at Headquarters. Death Eaters attacked them at the Dursley's."

"They're alright?" Sirius asked quickly.

"Our side is fine," Remus nodded. "Apparently the Death Eaters are a bit worse for the wear."

"Good," Severus said, sitting back. "Is she coming home?"

"No," Remus shook his head. "They're waiting for something, they said."

"Well, go back and find out more," Severus said.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Remus said uncomfortably.

"Why not?" Sirius looked confused.

"I offered my services, and I was told, by your daughter, basically, to go to hell."

Severus frowned. "Excuse me?"

"She said that I was a coward and that I was just looking for glory."

"She said _what_?" Severus was on his feet.

"Severus, don't," Remus said, jumping to his feet as well.

But Severus was already gone, Apparating with a loud crack.

*S*S*

"Elizabeth Rose Evans!" Severus bellowed as he closed the door to Headquarters.

"No need to do an ID check on that one," Ron said, raising his eyebrows, sitting in the kitchen with Hermione.

"Just lie low," Hermione advised.

Severus stood in the foyer, making no move to go deeper into the house. He'd already gone further than he usually did to scold an errant child. Severus Snape summoned people, not the other way around.

"Dad!" Elizabeth shrieked, flying off the second stair to throw her arms around his neck.

Caught off guard, Severus closed his arms around her waist, holding her slight frame to his chest.

"What are you doing here? Remus said the house was being watched."

"Did he?" Severus set her on the floor and crossed his arms. "Did he also mention that your seventeenth birthday did not give you license to do whatever you please?"

"Dad, we've talked about—

"Quiet," Severus snapped. "I've never allowed you to speak to anyone the way you spoke to Remus today, and I'm not going to stand for it now, especially to him. You might think you're all grown-up, but I'll tell you right now, young lady, you are not too old for an attitude adjustment."

"Dad—"

"You just listen to me," Severus continued. "You will apologize, and you will do so remembering that this is the man who has done nothing but love and support you."

"Tonks is pregnant," Elizabeth finally managed.

"What?" Severus looked at her like she'd lost her head.

"Tonks is pregnant. Remus wanted to go with us and leave her behind because he doesn't want to be a father." Elizabeth sat on the bottom step. "I shouldn't have called him a coward. I was mad at him."

Severus paused, digesting that news. "Well," he said slowly, his voice less angry, but still stern, "you're right. You shouldn't have said that. And you will apologize at your very next opportunity." He pressed his lips together. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go beat the hell out of your godfather."

Elizabeth snorted a laugh. "Okay," she stood and put her arms around him again. "I'm glad to see you."

"Me too," Severus kissed the top of her head. "Thank you for the rose. It helped me sleep that night."

"It was all I could think of," Elizabeth smiled. "You're okay?"

"We're fine," Severus assured. "I'm sorry I misjudged the situation. I really thought I'd taken the Dark Lord's view off you for a moment."

"It's never going to be off me," Elizabeth said quietly, "until he's gone."

"I suppose so," Severus said gravely. "You'll let me know that you're alright… often. But not often enough to arouse suspicion."

"Sure, Dad. Just enough." She kissed him on the cheek.

*S*S*

On the house on Spinner's End, Remus Lupin was feeling very much like he was waiting for his father to get home after he'd mouthed off to his mother.

"It doesn't mean anything," Sirius assured him. "She's under a lot of pressure."

Remus nodded, but didn't tell him the truth. He knew that Elizabeth would tell Severus, and that Severus would be… not as understanding as Remus had made the Potions Master out to be when he was talking to his goddaughter.

His assumptions were proven correct. Even Snape's Apparation crack seemed angry. "Remus Lupin," Severus seethed, wand drawn. "How dare you?"

"What?" Sirius asked, scrambling to his feet.

"Do you know why Lupin wanted to go with Elizabeth?" Severus was talking to Sirius, but his gaze was trained on Remus. "Nymphadora is with child."

"Really?" Sirius looked at Remus. "That's brilliant, mate! Congratulations!"

"You see, Lupin doesn't think it's brilliant," Severus said, glaring at the werewolf. "And he saw fit to tell that to a child who worships him, probably more than her own father. That's why he wanted to go off and look for Horcruxes. To leave his wife and child behind. Is that why Nymphadora went to visit her parents? Did you send her away with no intention of seeing her again?"

Remus stared at his shoes. "I'm not good for her," he started. "And that child deserves to walk down the street without people pointing and whispering."

"Do you think Elizabeth didn't take some of that with me?" Severus shot back. "Nymphadora clearly wanted you as her child's father, though Merlin only knows why, when you're acting like a teenager instead of a grown man; running from your responsibilities." He crossed his arms. "If you want to act like a child, fine. I'll tell you what I told your goddaughter. You will apologize the next time you see each other. She's going to apologize for speaking to you in a way that, while you may have deserved at the time, is not acceptable in this family. You will apologize to her for making her feel like you never wanted for her to be in your life. And for making her seem insane for loving you, since you believe that no one can." He gave his best teacher-frown.

"Elizabeth is different," Remus protested. "She has other people—

"And you think we're going to let you raise a child on your own?" Severus snorted. "Once, when Elizabeth was a baby, you hung a swing from the kitchen ceiling, because you could 'make her go faster' with the extra room. That had nothing to do with you being a werewolf, it had to do with you being an idiot. I imagine that your wife might not even let you touch this child for the first year. And again, it'll have nothing to do with the full moon. If you think Black and I are going to be more than about 3 feet from you during this, you're insane."

"She's never going to forgive me," Remus said quietly.

"Who?" Sirius asked. "Your wife or Elizabeth?"

"Either one," Remus shrugged.

"Well, you have to start with one," Severus said. "But don't start with Elizabeth. I'm afraid we'll draw attention if we keep Apparating in front of that house."

"Alright," Remus sighed. "Dora, it is."


	8. Amends and the Ministry

Remus Lupin felt like it would be safer to lie down in front of the Hogwarts Express than to knock on the door of the Tonks house. But he did it anyway.

"I need to speak to Dora," he said softly.

Mrs. Tonks, looking very much like her sisters at that moment, scowled. "About what?"

"Please," Remus said, not above begging. "I made a mistake. I know that. Just let me see her."

"As if she's in charge of who can see me?" Tonks appeared behind her mother, her hair grey and stringy. "Maybe I'd like to kick your arse myself."

"I'm sorry, Dora," Remus said sullenly. "I was a prat. You can kick whatever you want if you'd forgive me."

"Not worth it," Tonks said, kicking the door shut.

"Tonks, please," Remus pleaded. When there was no answer, he leaned his forehead against the door. It was over. There was a woman in that house, who had loved him despite everything. She was carrying a child he thought he'd never have. And she hated him.

He sat down on the step and leaned against the door, wondering how exactly he was able to wreck his life so fast. His wife hated him, the only child he'd ever had thought he was an idiot (and not in the lovingly-annoyed way Severus had used earlier). His best friend wanted to punch him, which was probably the least of his worries.

He sat on the step for hours. Darkness fell.

Remus fell as well when Tonks opened the door at 2:30 in the morning, causing his sleeping body to fall backward into the house.

"Get up and come in here," she said kicking his shoulder with her socked toe. "If you're going to be pathetic, do it in the house where no one can see you."

Remus scrambled to his feet and followed her through the living room and up the stairs. "Dora—

"You shut up," Tonks said irritably, holding the door open to her room. "You don't get to talk, because you say stupid things when you do."

Remus nodded, looking at her.

"For being so much 'older' than me, you are a child," Tonks said, crossing her arms. "I'm not sure I want a child raising my child."

"Our child," Remus said softly. "I was afraid. I'm sorry. But when I think about passing on—

"What? A couple of days a month of pain?" Tonks snorted. "What if we have a girl?"

"It's not that simple."

"I know," Tonks said, sitting on the bed. "But if the baby is fine, it's going to be amazing. And if the baby is furry, I'll need you to help me make it amazing."

"I'm sorry," Remus knelt at her feet and took her hands in his. "I'm terrified. But I love you. And I want this baby more than I can possibly tell you. But, again, I'm terrified."

"Then you need me then," Tonks said, taking her hands from his and putting them on his face. "Because you clearly can't be on your own."

"You'll forgive me?"

"I suppose."

"And you'll come home?"

"To the house where three men are used to have a teenager cook for them and are, therefore, starving? I suppose so." Tonks leaned down and kissed him.

"Get your stuff," Remus smiled broadly.

"It's late," Tonks said. "Or early. Why don't we just stay here tonight?"

"That's a brilliant idea," Remus said brightly. "Except right now, we could leave without having to explain it to your parents."

"You're 38 years old," Tonks reminded him. "You don't have to explain anything to them. We're married. You even knocked me up."

"That's a charming way to put that," Remus lay back on the bed and opened his arms. "Can I say that I'm sorry again?"

"You can," Tonks nodded. "In fact, I think I may have made this too easy. Maybe you should sleep on the floor."

"Anything you want," Remus said, sitting up, only to have Tonks push him back down.

"You can say you're sorry when it's daylight," she said lying beside him and snuggling her suddenly hot-pink hair into her husband's shoulder. "And many days after that. You're on probation."

"I'll take it," Remus said, kissing her temple. "I just hope that Elizabeth forgives me as well."

"She's angry?"

"Yeah," Remus said tiredly. "I may have told her about running away from you and the baby."

"You said that to a child who you've all but been a father to?" Tonks smacked him in the shoulder. "She should have hexed you."

"She almost did," Remus sighed. "I think she thought she shouldn't waste her breath on me."

*S*S*

"Kreacher has returned with the thief Mundungus Fletcher, Mistress."

Mundungus scrambled up and pulled out his wand; Hermione, however, was too quick for him.

"_Expelliarmus_!"

Mundungus' wand soared into the air, and Hermione caught it. Wild-eyed, Mundungus dived for the stairs. Ron rugby-tackled him and Mundungus hit the stone floor with a muffled crunch.

"What?" he bellowed, writhing in his attempts to free himself from Ron's grip. "What've I don? Setting a bloody house-elf on me. What are you playing at?"

Elizabeth dropped on her knees beside Mundungus, who stopped struggling and looked terrified. Elizabeth pointed her wand at the man's nose, and Ron got up, dusting himself off.

"Kreacher apologizes for the delay in bringing the thief, Mistress," croaked the elf. "Fletcher knows how to avoid capture, has many hiding places and accomplices."

"You've done really well, Kreacher," Elizabeth assured. "We've got a few questions for you," she looked at Mundungus.

"When you cleaned out this house of anything valuable," Elizabeth began; only to be interrupted.

"Sirius was throwing away all that junk—

There was an echoing clang as Kreacher hit the man over the head with a saucepan.

"Kreacher, no!" Elizabeth shouted.

"Perhaps just one more, Mistress Elizabeth, for luck?"

Fred laughed.

"We need him conscious, Kreacher, but if he needs persuading, you can do the honors," Elizabeth said, amused.

Kreacher backed off with a bow, still looking at Mundungus with loathing.

"When you stripped this house of all the valuables you could find," Elizabeth began again, "you took a bunch of stuff from the kitchen cupboard. There was a locket there. What did you do with it?"

"Why?" Mundungus asked. "Is it valuable?"

"He's wondering whether he should have asked more money for it," Fred said, poking the man a bit with his foot.

"More?" Mundungus asked. "That wouldn't have been difficult, would it? I gave it away for bloody nothing. No choice."

"What do you mean?"

"I was selling in Diagon Alley and she came up to me and asks if I've got a license for trading in magical artifacts. Bloody snoop. She was gonna fine me, but she took a fancy to the locket and told me she'd take it and let me off that time."

"Who was this woman?" asked Elizabeth.

"I dunno. Some Ministry hag. Little woman. Bow on top of her head." He frowned, then added. "Looked like a toad."

Elizabeth looked at Fred, her shock registering in his face as well. The scars on the back of her hand seemed to tingle in remembrance.

*S*S*

Severus Snape sat in his office, staring at the door. It was still a mystery to him why Voldemort was allowing him to maintain his post as Headmaster.

"So He's stocked the staff with Death Eaters?" Minerva said, standing in the middle of the office.

"It would seem that way," Severus gritted his teeth. "Muggle Studies from a Death Eater's point of view. Amazing."

"Just as interesting as the same breed teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts." Minerva sighed. "What are you going to do, Sev?"

"As far as the staffing changes are concerned? Nothing." Severus shuffled the parchment on his desk. "I'm mostly trying to decide what to do with the Muggle-borns that are having their acceptances revoked."

"We can't let it happen, Severus!" Minerva sat in front of his desk. "Think of if Lily Evans wasn't allowed to come to Hogwarts!"

"I think that's exactly what the Dark Lord is thinking," Severus said sagely. "And I understand that we mustn't let it happen. But I also can't bring students into this school who might get hurt." He glared at the witch. "You don't need to play the Lily card, Mother. I understand what is at stake here."

"They're calling my grandchild "Public Enemy Number One"," Minerva frowned. "And you've let her go off to Merlin-knows-where."

"I know where she is," Severus shook his head. "And I know what _they_ are calling her. And I can only thank whatever god is listening that she's not like _them_."

"Indeed," Minerva nodded. "You should watch what you say," she said quietly. "I'm betting the office is being watched."

"I'm certain it is," Severus raised his voice. "I'm a half-blood that married a Muggle-born witch and produced another half-blood who wants to kill you!"

"Severus!" Minerva said, shocked.

"Don't you see?" Severus tossed his quill onto the desk. "He's torturing me. Using me to run this school against all reason."

"You don't have to bait Him."

"I'm just in that kind of mood."

*S*S*

"Most Ministry people use the Floo to get to work," Ron said. "Umbridge would never walk, she'd think she's too important."

That's how they ended up Polyjuice-potioning their way into the Ministry. Elizabeth was wrapped in her invisibility cloak on top of her Ministry-approved persona. They'd split once inside, Elizabeth heading straight to Umbridge's office. When she arrived there, she was glad she'd brought the invisibility cloak.

Where there might have been a peephole on a Muggle front door, a large, round eye with a bright blue iris had been set into the wood. A feeling of fury shot through her. How dare that Umbridge woman?

Elizabeth examined the plaque under the eye:

DOLORES UMBRIDGE

Senior Undersecretary to the Minister

Head of the Muggle-Born

Registration Commission

Elizabeth looked around trying to decide if there were enough people in the corridor to warrant evasive measures. A group of employees were sitting in the room across the hall, making what appeared to be pamphlets with Elizabeth's face plastered on the front.

Crouching down beneath the cloak, she placed the Decoy Detonator Fred had given her on the ground. It scuttled away at once, through the legs of the witches and wizards in the corridor to a corner where it exploded with a loud band and a thick cloud of acrid black smoke.

In the commotion, Elizabeth turned the doorknob, stepped into Umrbide's office, and closed the door behind her.

The room was exactly like Umbridge's office at Hogwarts. Lace draperies, doilies, and dried flowers covered every available surface. The ornamental plates that haunted Elizabeth's dreams were displayed in all their glory, sickening kittens and all.

"_Accio Locket_," Elizabeth tried, not expecting the locket to appear. Nothing was ever that easy. She was not disappointed. Nothing happened.

Elizabeth hurried to the desk and began pulling open the drawers. She saw quills and notebooks and Spellotape; enchanted paper clips; spare hair bows and clips; but no sign of a locket.

There was a filing cabinet behind the desk, and Elizabeth set to searching it. It was full of folders, each labeled with a name. It was not until Elizabeth reached the bottommost drawer that she saw something to distract her from her search. Fred Weasley's file.

She pulled it out and opened it.

FRED WEASLEY

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood, but with unacceptable pro-Muggle leanings. Known member of the Order of the Phoenix.

FAMILY: Six siblings, two youngest at Hogwarts. Father and third oldest brother work for the Ministry. Engaged to Undesirable No. 1, confirmed by Percy Weasley.

EDUCATION: Hogwarts drop out

EMPLOYMENT: Toy shop owner

SECURITY STATUS: TRACKED. All movements are being monitored. Strong likelihood Undesirable No. 1 will contact. No visual confirmation of existence since August 1, 1997.

IF SEEN- DO NOT KILL- WANTED BY THE MINISTER FOR QUESTIONING.

"Undesirable Number One," Elizabeth muttered as she replaced Fred's file. "I think there probably is a 'strong likelihood' that we'll be in contact, yeah." She closed the drawer. "Toy shop," she grumbled.

She searched the whole office, but there was nothing there. Irritated, she slipped out the door before turning and, in a moment of reckless rebellion, pulled Moody's eye off the door and tucked it in her pocket.

The lift was empty when it arrived. Elizabeth jumped in and pulled off the cloak as soon as the doors closed. When it reached level two, a soaking-wet and wild-eyed Ron got in.

"M-morning," he stammered.

"Ron, it's me, Elizabeth!"

"Elizabeth! I forgot what you looked like. Where's Hermione and Fred?"

"Hermione had to go down to the courtrooms with Umbridge. We met her on the lift after you got sent to deal with the… rain," Elizabeth tried not to laugh. "Fred was following Thicknesse."

As if he'd heard their discussion, Fred got on at the next floor. He was being followed by Mr. Weasley, though he was clearly trying to avoid making any eye contact with his father.

Arthur glared at Elizabeth, an expression she'd never seen directed at her from the usually jovial man. Elizabeth imagined that Mr. Weasley was not friends with her Polyjuice-induced look.

"Hell, Reg," Mr. Weasley said to Ron. "Isn't your wife in for questioning today? What happened to you? Why are you so wet?"

"Yaxley's office is raining," Ron said, avoiding eye contact as well. Obviously, both Weasley boys were scared that their father would recognize them if they looked into his eyes.

The lift doors opened. Ron and Fred darted out like they'd been shot from a cannon. Elizabeth made to follow them, but found her path blocked as Percy Weasley strode into the lift.

Not until the doors clanged shut again did Percy realize he was in the lift with his father. He glanced up from the papers he was reading, saw Mr. Weasley, and left the lift the moment the doors opened again. For the second time, Elizabeth tried to get out, but this time found her way blocked by Mr. Weasley's arm.

She was suddenly uncomfortable. Forget the uncharacteristic glare she'd gotten before, the Mr. Weasley she knew would never have tried to physically stop her from doing anything. Who was the man that she was impersonating that caused her gentle future father-in-law to act this way?

"I hear you laid information about Dirk Cresswell," Arthur said as the lift door closed.

Elizabeth decided her best chance was to act stupid. "Sorry?"

"Don't pretend, Runcorn," said Mr. Weasley fiercely. "You tracked down the wizard who faked his family tree, didn't you?"

"I— so what if I did?" Elizabeth said.

"So Dirk Cresswell is ten times the wizard you are," Mr. Weasley said dangerously. "And if he survives Azkaban, you'll have to answer to him, not to mention his wife, his sons, and his friends—

"Arthur," Elizabeth interrupted. The name felt foreign in her mouth.

But the doors opened. Mr. Weasley gave her a scathing look and swept from the lift. Elizabeth stood there, shaking, wishing she was impersonating somebody other than Runcorn. She desperately wanted to reveal herself. Anything to never have to see Arthur look at her that way again.

She let the lift take her all the way down to the level with the courtroom. She needed to get Hermione and get out of the Ministry. Empty handed. Perhaps she could just knock on the door and ask to speak to Mafalda, Hermione's persona.

Lost in thought, she did not immediately register the unnatural chill that was creeping over her, as if she were descending into fog. It was becoming colder and colder with every step she took. A cold that reached right down into her throat and tore at her lungs. And then she felt that stealing sense of despair, of hopelessness, filling her, expanding inside her…

_Dementors._

As she reached the foot of the stairs and turned to her right, she saw a dreadful scene. The dark passages outside the courtrooms was packed with tall, black-hooded figures, their faces completely hidden, their ragged breathing the only sound in the place. The petrified Muggle-borns brought in for questioning sat huddled and shivering on hard wooden benches. Most of them were hiding their faces in their hands, away from the dementors' greedy mouths. Some were gliding up and down in front of them, and the cold, and the hopelessness, and the despair of the place laid themselves upon Elizabeth like a curse…

_Fight it_, she told herself, but she knew that she could not conjure a Patronus here without revealing herself. Instead she moved forward, thinking of as many happy things as she could. Her engagement ring. Fred sleeping. Tonks' baby, because even if Remus was going to be a jerk, she was still going to be part of that child's life. Her father's face when she'd managed to best him in a duel.

The last one made her almost laugh out loud, because the combination of surprise, outrage, and pride was quite a sight to see.

Suddenly, one of the dungeon doors on the left of the corridor was flung open and screams echoed out of it.

"No, no, I'm half-blood, I'm half-blood, I tell you! My father was a wizard, he was, look him up, Arkie Alderton, he's a well-known broomstick designer, look him up, I tell you, get your hands off me, get your hands off—

"This is your final warning," said Umbridge's magically-magnified voice. "If you struggle, you will be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss."

The man's screams subsided, but dry sobs echoed through the corridor.

"Take him away," said Umbridge.

Two dementors appeared in the doorway of the courtroom, their rotting, scabbed hands cluthching the upper arms of a wizard who appeared to be fainting. They glided away down the corridor with him.

"Next, Mary Cattermole," called Umbridge.

Elizabeth knew, in her mind, that the small, dark haired woman who rose, shuddering to go inside was Mary Cattermole. But in that moment, the woman's hair turned red and her eyes green. It could have been Lily. It could have been her mother, sitting in this hallway.

Instinctively, possessively, and without any sort of plan, Elizabeth followed. She couldn't let this woman go alone.

It was not the same room in which she'd once been interrogated for improper use of magic. This one was much smaller, though the ceiling was as high; it gave the claustrophobic sense of being stuck at the bottom of a deep well.

There were more dementors in here, casting their freezing aura over the place; they stood like faceless sentinels in the corners farthest from the high, raised platform. Umbridge, flanked by Yaxley on one side and Mafalda-Hermione on the other. Hermione looked as frightened as her fellow Muggle-borns in the hallway.

At the foot of the platform, a bright-silver, long-haired cat prowled up and down, up and down, and Elizabeth first realized that it was there to protect the prosecutors from the despair that emanated from the dementors. It was then she realized that Umbridge, while a horrible, shrew of a woman, was not an untalented witch. A corporal Patronus was high-level magic, and to have one that interacted with its surroundings the way the cat was doing... it was a bad sign.

"Sit down," Umbridge said.

Mrs. Cattermole stumbled to the single seat in the middle of the floor beneath the raised platform. The moment she had sat down, chains clinked out of the arms of the chair and bound her there.

"You are Mary Elizabeth Cattermole?"

Mrs. Cattermole nodded.

"Married to Reginald Cattermole of the Magical Maintenance Department?"

Elizabeth used the questioning and sobbing to make her way to the steps that led up to the platform. The moment she passed the place where the cat patrolled, she felt the change in temperature. It was warm and comfortable here. Slowly and carefully she edged her way along the platform behind Umbridge, sitting behind Hermione. She was worried about making Hermione jump.

Silently, she cast the "_Scribus_" spell. On the page on which Hermione was supposed to be taking notes, the words "I'm behind you" appeared.

Hermione twitched a bit and stopped writing, then nodded, almost imperceptibly, waving her wand to erase the sentence.

Umbridge was leaning forward over the barrier now, to better observe her victim, and something gold swung forward too, and dangled over the void. The locket.

Hermione had seen it too, and she let out a little squeak, but Umbridge and Yaxley, still intent upon their prey, were deaf to everything else.

"There's never been a true witch born from Muggle parents," Umbridge was saying. "There's been a rash of Mudbloods stealing wands and magic, and you are one of those."

Elizabeth raised her wand, not even troubling to keep it concealed beneath the Invisibility Cloak, and said, "_Stupefy!_"

There was a flash of red light, and Umbridge crumbled, her forehead hitting the edge of the table. The prowling silver cat vanished. Ice-cold air hit them like an oncoming wind. Yaxley, confused, looked around for the source of the trouble, but he saw Elizabeth's disembodied hand too late. "_Stupefy_!"

Yaxley slid to the ground to lie curled on the floor.

"Elizabeth!"

"Hermione, if you think I was going to sit and let her say things—

"Elizabeth, Mrs. Cattermole!"

Elizabeth whirled around, throwing off her cloak. Down below, the dementors had moved toward the woman chained to the chair. Mrs. Cattermole let out a terrible scream of fear as a slimy, scabbed hand grasped her chin and forced her face back.

"_Expecto Patronum_!"

The silver basilisk burst from the tip of Elizabeth's wand and leaped toward the dementors, which fell back again. The basilisk's light, more powerful than the cat's had been, filled the whole dungeon as it grew, until it was coiled all around the room.

"Get the Horcrux," Elizabeth told Hermione, then ran down the steps, stuffing the cloak into her bag, approaching Mrs. Cattermole.

"You?" Mary whispered, gazing into Elizabeth's fake face. "But… but Reg said you were the one who submitted my name for questioning!"

"Did I?" Elizabeth muttered. "Well, I've had a change of heart. _Diffindo!_" Nothing happened. "Hermione, how do I get rid of these chains?"

"Wait, I'm trying something up here—

"Hermione, we're surrounded by dementors!"

"I know that, Elizabeth, but if she wakes up and the locket's gone… I need to duplicate it. _Geminio_! There… That should fool her…" Hermione came running downstairs. "Let's see…. _Relashio!"_

The chains clinked and withdrew into the arms of the chair. Mrs. Cattermole looked just as frightened as ever before.

"I don't understand," she whispered.

"You're going to leave here with us," said Elizabeth, pulling her to her feet, enjoying the new physical ability her male body was allowing her. She'd have to remember that for next time. "Go home, grab your children, and get out. Get out of the country if you've got to. Disguise yourselves and run. You've seen how it is, you won't get anything like a fair hearing here."

"Elizabeth," Hermione said urgently. "How are we going to get out of here with all those dementors outside the door?"

"Patronuses," Elizabeth said, pointing at her own. The basilisk slithered toward the door. "As many as we can muster; do yours, Hermione."

"_Expec…Expecto patronum,"_ Hermione said. Nothing happened.

"It's the only spell she ever has trouble with," Elizabeth told Mrs. Cattermole. "Bit unfortunate, really… Come on, Hermione…"

"_Expecto patronum!_"

A silver otter burst from the end of Hermeion's wand and swam gracefully through the air to join the basilisk.

"C'mon," said Elizabeth, and she led Hermione and Mrs. Cattermole to the door.

When the Patronuses glided out of the dungeon there were cried of shock from the people waiting outside. Elizabeth looked around; the dementors were falling back on both sides of them, melting into the darkness, scattering before the silver creatures.

"It's been decided that you should all go home and go into hiding with your families," Elizabeth told the Muggle-borns, who were dazzled by the light of the Patronuses and still cowering slightly. "Go abroad if you can. Just get well away from the Ministry. That's the… new official position." Elizabeth lead the group behind the Patronuses to the lifts to go up to the atrium.

She was still trying to puzzle out in her mind what they were going to do when they arrived in the atrium with two Patronuses, one that was quite well-known, and a group of twenty or so accused Muggle-borns. Before she could come up with a plan, the lift opened.

"Reg!" screamed Mrs. Cattermole, and she threw herself into Ron's arms. "Runcorn let me out, he attacked Umbridge and Yaxley, and he's told all of us to leave the country, I think we'd better do it, Reg, I really do. Let's hurry home and fetch the children and… why are you so wet?"

"Water," muttered Ron, disengaging himself as the man who was Fred stepped out of the lift as well.

"They know there are intruders inside the Ministry," Fred said. "Something about a hole in Umbridge's office door. I reckon we've got five minutes, if that—

Hemione's Patronus disappeared. "Elizabeth, if we're trapped here—

"We won't be if we move fast. Everyone into the lifts. If you've got a wand, have it ready. If you haven't, attach yourself to someone who has."

They managed to cram themselves into two lifts.

"Level eight," said the witch's cool voice, "Atrium."

Elizabeth knew at once that they were in trouble. The atrium was full of people moving from fireplace to fireplace, sealing them off.


	9. On the Run Again

"STOP!" Elizabeth thundered, thinking absently that she needed to find a way to make her own voice work the way Runcorn's did. The wizards sealing the fireplaces froze. "Follow me," she whispered to the group of terrified Muggle-borns, who moved forward in a huddle, shepherded by Ron, Hermione, and Fred.

"What's up, Albert?" said a balding wizard. He looked nervous.

"This lot need to leave before you seal the exits," said Elizabeth all the authority she'd learned from her father.

The group of wizards in front of her looked at one another.

"We've been told to seal all exits and not to let anyone—

"Are you contradicting me?" Elizabeth snapped, channeling Snape when he sensed unwelcome teenage attitude. "Would you like me to have your family tree examined, like I had Dirk Cresswell's?"

"Sorry!" gasped the balding wizard, backing away. "I didn't mean anything, Albert, but I thought… I thought they were in for questioning…"

"Their blood is pure," Elizabeth said, liking the way her voice was echoing through the hall. "Purer than many of yours, I daresay. Off you go," she ordered the Muggle-borns. The Ministry wizards hung back as the group disappeared, until there was only Mrs. Cattermole.

"Mary!"

Mrs. Cattermole looked over her shoulder. The real Reg Cattermole had just come running out of a lift.

"R-Reg?"

She looked from her husband to Ron, who swore loudly.

The balding wizard gaped, his head turning from one Reg to the other.

"What's going on? What is this?"

"Seal the exit! Seal it!" Yaxley had burst out of another lift and was running toward the group beside the fireplaces. As the balding wizard lifted his wand, Elizabeth raised her man-fist and punched him, sending him flying through the air.

"He's been helping Muggle-borns escape, Yaxley!" Elizabeth shouted.

The balding wizard's colleagues set up an uproar, under cover of which Ron grabbed Mrs. Cattermole and pulled her into the still-open fireplace, disappearing. Confused, Taxley looked from Elizbaeth to the punched wizard, while the real Reg Cattermole screamed, "My wife! Who was that with my wife?"

"Go," Fred pushed Elizabeth and Hermione into the fireplace, and they whipped off to where Ron was standing with Mrs. Cattermole near the sinks of the lavatory.

"Let go, I'm not your husband," Ron was saying. "You've got to go home!"

There was a noise in the cubicle behind them; Elizabeth looked around to see Yaxley and Fred.

"Go!" Elizabeth yelled, grabbing Fred and Hermione while the latter grabbed Ron and turned on the spot.

Darkness engulfed them, along with the sensation fro compressing bands, but something was wrong… Hermione's hand seemed to be sliding out of her grip.

And then she saw the door of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, with its serpent door knocker, but before she could breathe, there was a scream and a flash of purple light; Hermione's hand was suddenly vice-like upon hers and everything went dark again.

*S*S*

Elizabeth opened her eyes and wondered where she was. All she could see was sky and trees. Her head throbbing, she sat up and rolled to her hands and knees.

Ron was lying several yards to her left, Hermione and Fred were on their knees beside him.

"What happened?" Elizabeth managed to stand.

"He was splinched," Fred said, his voice shaking.

"Elizabeth, in my bag, there's a small bottle labeled 'Essense of Dittany'—

"Right," Elizabeth grabbed the tiny beaded bag, and pointed her wand into the depths of the magical storage. "_Accio Dittany_!"

A small bottle zoomed out of the bag and she rushed it back to the huddle on the ground. Ron's eyes were half-closed.

"He's fainted," said Hermione, who was rather pale herself. She was starting to lose her Mafalda-look, but her hair was still grey. "Unstopper it for me, Elizabeth, my hands are shaking."

Elizabeth wrenched the stopped off the little bottle, then handed it to Hermione before she found Fred's hand with hers.

Hermione poured three drops of the potion on the bleeding wound. Greenish smoke billowed upward and when it had cleared, Elizabeth saw that the bleeding had stopped. The wound now looked several days old, new skin stretched over what had just been open flesh.

"Wow," said Elizabeth.

"It's all I feel safe doing," Hermione shook her head. "There are spell that would put him completely right, but I haven't got much experience… he's lost so much blood already…"

"Why are we here?" Elizabeth looked around. "I thought we were going back to Grimmauld Place?"

"Elizabeth…" Hermione took a shaky breath. "I don't think we're going to be able to go back there."

"What—

"As we Disapparated, Yaxley caught hold of me and I couldn't get rid of him, he was too strong, and he was still holding on when we arrived at Grimmauld Place, and then… well, I think he must have seen the door, and thought we were stopping there, so he slackened his grip and I managed to shake him off and I brought us here instead!"

"You mean he's at Grimmauld Place? He can't get in there."

"Betsy," Fred pressed his lips together, looking at his brother. "I think he can. We were already inside the Fidelius Charm's protection. We were the Secret-Keepers, so we've given him the secret."

Elizabeth knew immediately that he was right. She drew her wand and sent her Patronus to Spinner's End. "Headquarters was compromised, everyone is out, stay away."

"Elizabeth, I'm so sorry," Hermione looked like she was going to cry,

"Don't be stupid, it wasn't your fault! If anything, it was mine." Elizabeth put her hand in her pocket and drew out Mad-Eye's eye. Fred looked at it with disgust.

"Umbridge had it stuck to her office door, to spy on people. I couldn't leave it there… but that's why they knew there were intruders."

Fred looked disapproving, but before he could speak, Ron groaned and opened his eyes. He was still gray and his face glistened with sweat.

"How do you feel?" Hermione whispered.

"Lousy," croaked Ron, wincing as he felt his injured arm. "Where are we?"

"In the woods where they held the Quidditch World Cup," said Hermione.

"Do you think we should move on?" Ron asked. "We have… connections to this place."

"I don't know," Elizabeth said softly.

"No," Fred shook his head. "We aren't going to move you right now. We'll stay awhile."

Hermione sprang to her feet. "If we're staying, we should put some protective enchantments around the place," she said.

Elizabeth watched as she walked the perimeter of the clearing, murmuring incantations as she went. She felt Fred stand and pull her to her feet. "Listen, Fred—

"You two could get out the tent," Hermione said.

Fred went to the bag and performed a Summoning Charm, producing a lumpy mass of canvas, rope, and poles.

"I thought this belonged to some guy at the Ministry?" Elizabeth asked, starting to sort out the tent pegs.

"Apparently he didn't want it back," Fred said. "Dad said we could borrow it. _Erecto_!" He pointed his wand at the misshapen canvas, which in one fluid motion rose into the air and settled, fully constructed onto the ground before Elizabeth.

"Here," Fred held open the flap. "We're going to make sure everything is in order in here," he called to Hermione. He looked at Elizabeth with something in his face that she couldn't quite read.

Inside, the tent was much like the one that she had stayed in at the World Cup. There were two bedrooms off a common area, plus a bathroom. Fred strode into one of the bedrooms. When Elizabeth followed, she found him sitting on the bed, elbows resting on his knees. Then, she recognized his expression.

"You're angry."

Fred shook his head. "No."

"You are," Elizabeth went to stand between his knees, locking her fingers behind his neck.

Fred sighed and put his arms around her waist. "I said I'm not angry. I'm… concerned that you did an emotional, reckless thing today that alerted Ministry officials."

"I had to get those people out. They were Kissing them, Fred—

"That's not what I'm talking about," Fred interrupted. "I'm talking about you ripping Moody's eye off Umbridge's door."

"I couldn't let it stay there—

"He isn't using it," Fred said seriously. "There were a million risky things we did today, and I wish you wouldn't add to them."

Elizabeth nodded. "She's just such a bitch."

Fred laughed. "True," he leaned back on the bed and pulled her on top of him. "I can't believe you thought I was mad about the Muggle-borns."

"That was emotional as well," Elizabeth sighed. "I just kept thinking that my mum… I hate these people, Fred. I hate them like I've never hated anyone."

"Have you ever hated anyone, sunshine and light?" Fred teased.

"You're a dork," Elizabeth laughed, kissing him.

"Ehm," Hermione knocked on the door jamb. "Fred, can you carry your brother in here? He won't let me levitate him, he's being… Ron."

"Ugh," Fred groaned as Elizabeth rolled off his chest. "I never liked him." He stood up and went outside. The girls went into the common room as they listened to Fred's good- natured jibing of his brother.

"Move aside, invalid coming through," Fred quipped as he carried Ron through the door.

"I can walk," Ron protested. "It's only a little—

"Arm detachment?" Hermione scowled. "Put him on the sofa."

"So, have you got it?" Elizabeth asked Hermione, sitting in on of the armchairs.

"Got what?" she asked absently, throwing a blanket over Ron.

"What did we just go through all that for? The locket! Where's the locket?"

"You got it?" Ron and Fred chorused; the former trying to sit up and the latter pushing him back down.

"No one tells me anything!" Ron shouted. "You could have mentioned it!"

"Well, we were running for our lives from the Death Eaters, weren't we?" said Hermione. "Here." She pulled the locket out of the pocket of her robes and handed it to Ron.

"There isn't any chance someone's destroyed it since Kreacher had it?" asked Fred hopefully.

"There would be some sign of damage if it had been magically destroyed," Hermione said, taking it back from Ron and inspecting it closely before passing it to Elizabeth.

"I imagine Kreacher's right," Elizabeth said. "We're going to have to work out how to open this thing before we can destroy it." She felt a violent urge to fling the locket from her. Taking a deep breath, she forced the feeling down.

"What are we going to do with it?" Hermione asked.

"Keep it safe until we work out how to destroy it," Elizabeth said. She hung the chain around her own neck, dropping the locket out of sight beneath her robes, where it rested against her chest, next to the portkey that would take her to Hogwarts in an emergency. Not that it was a safer location anymore, despite her father's position.

"I think we should take turns keeping watch outside the tent," Elizabeth said, standing and stretching. And we'll need to think about some food as well. You stay there," she added sharply, as Ron attempted to sit up and turned a nasty shade of green.

*S*S*

"What does she mean, compromised?" Sirius looked at Severus as the Basilisk disappeared.

"To compromise, in this case, means to expose to danger or disgrace," Severus said dryly, trying to slow his pounding heart. "I'd imagine, in this particular moment, she is leaning toward the 'danger' part of the definition."

"How about you take your dictionary and shove it up your—

"Boys," Tonks broke in from the kitchen. "Remus isn't here to referee, so give me a break, alright?"

"Tell him to stop being a pansy and come downstairs. Everyone knows the werewolf thing is a crock," Sirius shouted up the stairs.

The response that Remus shouted back made Severus glad that his daughter wasn't anywhere within earshot.

A silver weasel appeared in front of the two men.

"Ministry was attacked by four polyjuiced wizards or witches. Word from kids?" Mr. Weasley's voice came out of the weasel's mouth.

"Sent word that headquarters is unsafe. Not sure if connected," Severus told his doe, then sent it out the door.

"Not sure if it's connected?" Sirius snorted. "Our baby girl attacked the Ministry of Magic."

"We don't know that," Severus shook his head. "And she's not a baby. Running around with a bloody diamond on her finger."

"A couple of us were wondering when you were going to have the boy killed," Sirius chuckled. "We thought you must have said yes in order to distract everyone while you disposed of the body."

Severus sighed. "She was of age. He asked as a formality. At least this time," he rolled his eyes. "Six times, you know that? Six times, I had a terrified young man begging me to let him marry my daughter."

"And the last time?"

Severus grimaced. "I had a young man who showed me a diamond ring and reminded me that my daughter would be devastated if I didn't give my blessing to her engagement. He was distinctly not afraid of me. It was unnerving."

Sirius laughed. "Push-over."

"Oh really?" Severus scowled. "I don't remember asking for your opinion, mutt."

"Boys!" Tonks shouted again.

"Anyway," Severus stood. "I came to check in, but I have to go back now. First day of the term, you know."

"And you've found out that Headmasters do absolutely nothing all day?" Sirius grinned.

"Yes, actually," Severus sighed, heading out into the backyard. "I should open the floo again and let the Death Eaters come for you."

"Come home soon, love," Sirius shouted, waving enthusiastically.

*S*S*

"It sucks," Elizabeth said, her back resting against the tent.

"What?" Fred asked, stretching his legs in front of him as he sat beside her on the ground. "We've got a Horcrux."

"Yeah, but we have no idea how to destroy it, and we definitely don't know where the other ones are."

"Well, we could find a basilisk," Fred joked, draping an arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

They were quiet for a while. Nameless forebodings crept upon her as Elizabeth sat there in the dark. She tried to resist them, push them away, yet they came at her relentlessly. _Neither can live while the other survives_. She was tied to this. Tied to the piece of soul that lay against her breastbone.

Her scar started to prickle. And then burn. Angry flames licked at her forehead.

"_Give it to me, Gregorovitch_."

Elizabeth's voice was high, clear, and cold, her wand hand held in front of her by a long-fingered white hand. The man at whom she was pointing was suspended upside down in midair, though there were no ropes holding him; he swung there, invisibly and eerily bound, his limbs wrapped about him, his terrified face, on a level with Elizabeth's, ruddy due to the blood that had rushed to his head. He had pure-white hair and a thick, bushy beard.

"I have it not, I have it no more! It was, many years ago, stolen from me!"

"Do not lie to Lord Voldemort, Gregorovitch. He knows. He always knows."

The hanging man's pupils were wide, and they seemed to swell bigger and bigger until their blackness swallowed Elizabeth whole—

"Who was the thief, Gregorovitch?" said the high, cold voice.

"I do not know, I never knew, a young man, no, please! Please!"

A scream that went on and on and then a burst of green light.

"_Elizabeth!_"

She opened her eyes, panting, her forehead throbbing. She had passed out, sprawled on the ground, with Fred kneeling beside her.

"Dream," she said, sitting up quickly despite the pain in her head. "Must have dozed off."

"Try lying to me again," Fred challenged, glowering at her. "I thought we agreed that you were going to start shielding your mind—

"I didn't mean it to happen!" Elizabeth scowled. "It was a dream! Can you control what you dream about?"

"If you would focus on Occlumency—

"He's found Grgorovitch," Elizabeth interrupted. "I think he's killed him, but before that, he read Gregorovitch's mind and I saw—

"If you're so tired you're falling asleep, I'd better finish the watch on my own," Fred said firmly.

"I can finish the watch!"

"No, you're obviously exhausted," Fred strode over to the mouth of the tent and held back the flap. "Go to bed."

"Do I look like your little sister?"

Fred raised an eyebrow, but otherwise refused to be drawn into an argument. Sighing, Elizabeth went into the tent in search of Ron, who might listen to the contents of her vision.

"Where's Hermione?" Elizabeth asked the younger Weasley, sitting on the floor beside his bed.

"Shower," Ron gestured to the bathroom. "What's You-Know-Who doing?" he whispered.

Elizabeth thought for a moment. "He found Gregorovitch. He had him tied up and was torturing him."

"How's he supposed to make him a new wand when he's tied up?"

"I don't know," Elizabeth shook her head.

"Go to bed!" Fred called through the canvas. "Both of you!"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and lowered her voice even more. "He wanted something from Gregorovitch, but he said it was stolen… then Voldemort read his mind, and there was a young guy… I think I've seen him somewhere."

"Where?"

"I don't know, do I?" Elizabeth sighed. "But Gregorovitch is dead, so Voldemort has to be going after the thief."

"So it's a good thing that You-Know-Who is into non-violent conflict resolution, huh?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Yeah. Hermione's taking the next watch?"

"Mhmm," Ron closed his eyes. "Why does Fred have his knickers in a twist?"

"He's of the Hermione school of Occulmency."

"Like you should be using it?" Ron said sleepily.

"Yeah, though how they want me to use it in my sleep, I don't know."

Hermione emerged from the bathroom, tying her bushy hair back into a ponytail. "I'm going to trade watches with Fred. Switch again in four hours?"

"Yeah," Elizabeth said, standing and heading into the other bedroom. "I've been told that I'm tired, so I'm going to bed."

Hermione shared a look with Ron, but went outside to take over for Fred.

Elizabeth changed, and pulled the blankets back on one side of the bed, lying on her stomach, burying her face in the cool cotton of the pillowcase.

Fred let Hermione take his place and dragged his weary body into the bedroom. He looked at Elizabeth, sleeping in her angry pose. Or not sleeping. It was impossible to tell. Which was probably part of the reason for her angry position.

He wondered for a moment if he was welcome in bed with her, but she'd left the large bed whole, not splitting it in two or, as he'd witnessed once when he'd come into his parents' room early in the morning as a child, split the bed in two and transfigured one side into a lumpy, uncomfortable sofa. Mrs. Weasley was not a woman to be scorned.

Seeing as the bed was still one, Fred stripped to a t-shirt and boxers, sliding in the other side of the bed.

He was quiet for a long time, staring at the canvas ceiling. He listened to Ron and Hermione talking through the tent entrance, then what sounded like Hermione moving Ron's bed to the door so they could talk more easily.

"I don't want that… thing… in your head," Fred said aloud, talking to the ceiling.

There was no response from the other side of the bed.

"I know you don't enjoy the link," he continued. "I'm not accusing you of that. But you are a talented witch, with the best Occulmens in the world as your teacher. You know how to do it. But you don't. You don't force him out, even though you know it's dangerous."

He scowled, "I've had to pick you up off the ground twice since Bill's wedding, and I suspect that there were other incidents you hid from me. I don't mind picking you up. I just have to wonder why you keep letting it happen. I know it helps us get information, but I'm not comfortable with it. Just like I'm not comfortable with the Dursley's in their cushy home, happy as can be."

"I don't know if you understand, but _this_," Fred motioned back and forth between them, "is it for me in the world. It's all you and me from here on out. Nothing and no one matters as much to me. And I can't get into your head to make him stop, so I'm dealing with this the only way I know how."

Again, no response.

"Maybe I'm not handling it right," Fred went on. "But this is what I want. Ready? I want you to stop hiding it from me. I promise not to freak out, if you'll stop running into the bathroom pretending to brush your teeth, so I have to break the door down."

"You've never had to break down the door," Elizabeth muttered into her pillow.

"You know what I mean," Fred rolled onto his side, putting his head on her pillow. "Do we have a deal?"

"You'll stop being really inconsiderate and flying off the handle if I stop trying to protect you?"

Fred snorted. "Yeah. I guess that's the deal."

"Okay then," Elizabeth mumbled, her face still obscured by fabric. "Don't be an arse."

"Yes, ma'am," Fred nodded even though she couldn't see him. "As long as there aren't any more bathroom doors." He seemed to think about whom he was talking to. "Or an other doors. Or any other hiding places."


	10. Impossible

In the morning, Elizabeth woke to Hermione throwing her clothes on her face.

"Ron's hungry, so we're going looking for a town."

"I was hungry last night, and you didn't go and get me a town," Fred said through the jeans that were covering his head.

"Sorry, I didn't know they had a 'town shop' or that you needed one," Elizabeth laughed, freeing his face. "Hurry, she'll tear down the tent with us in it."

Two minutes later, they were outside, watching Hermione take down the protective enchantments.

"Are you okay to Apparate?" Fred looked at Ron, who had more color in his face than the night before.

"Yeah," Ron nodded. "Mostly hungry now."

They Apparated to a small market town, and, against Fred's protests, Elizabeth went into the town, covered in her invisibility cloak. The boys agreed that bacon sandwiches would cure all the wrongs in the world, while Hermione went along with the order with an eye roll and a grimace, explaining that it would be safer to get food from one place.

However, Elizabeth had barely entered the town when an unnatural chill, a descending mist, and a sudden darkening of the skies made her freeze where she stood.

"But you can make a brilliant Patronus!" protested Ron, when Elizabeth arrived back at the tent empty-handed, out of breath, and mouthing the single word, _dementors_.

"I couldn't make one," Elizabeth managed, clutching the stitch in her side.

"So we still haven't got any food."

"Shut up, Ron," Fred snapped, putting his arm around Elizabeth. "Did you run all the way here?"

Elizabeth nodded. "I'm sorry, Ron."

"Don't talk to him," Fred glared at his brother.

"I'm starving!" Ron protested. "All I've had since I bled half to death is a couple of toadstools!"

"You go and fight your way through the dementors then," Elizabeth snapped.

"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!"

"That's convenient."

Fred looked down at her, shocked at the venom in her voice. "Betsy—

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ron said, glaring.

"It's _supposed_ to mean that if you didn't—

"Of course!" Hermione broke in, startling them all into silence. "Elizabeth, give me the locket! Come on," she said impatiently, clicking her fingers when Elizabeth didn't immediately react. "The Horcrux, Elizabeth, you're still wearing it!"

She held out her hands, and Elizabeth lifted the golden chain over her head. The moment it parted contact with her skin, she felt free and oddly light. She had not even realized that she was clammy or that there was a heavy weight pressing on her stomach until both sensations lifted.

"Better?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah," Elizabeth nodded. "Loads better, actually."

"Betsy," Fred took hold of her shoulders and looked at her earnestly. "You don't think you've been possessed, do you?"

"What?" Elizabeth shook her head. "No! I remember everything we've done while I've been wearing it. I wouldn't know that if I'd been possessed, would I? Ginny told me there were times…" She trailed off. "Sorry," she put her arms around Fred and laid her head on his shoulder. He didn't say anything, just squeezed his arms tight around her.

"Well, maybe we ought not to wear it," Hermione said thoughtfully. "We can just keep it in the tent."

"We're not leaving a Horcrux lying around," Elizabeth said firmly. "If we lose it, if it gets stolen—

"Oh, all right," Hermione slipped the chain around her neck and tucked the locket out of sight down the front of her shirt. "But we'll take turns wearing it, so nobody keeps it on too long."

"Great," said Ron irritably, "and now we've sorted that out, can we please get some food?"

"Fine, but we'll go somewhere else to find it," said Hermione. "There's no point in staying where we know dementors are swooping around."

"Kent," Elizabeth said suddenly.

"What?" Fred looked at her.

"Hermione, can you do a Fidelius Charm?"

"Maybe," Hermione said. "It's pretty complicated magic, and I've never tried… why?"

"I'm still the owner of all of Sirius' houses," Elizabeth said. "There's one in Kent. In Maidstone. If we can set up a Fidelius Charm, we can create another Headquarters. Ron probably needs another day or two of rest, and it would be even better if it were in a real bed."

"But won't the Death Eaters be watching that too?"

"It's worth a shot," Elizabeth shrugged. "We can Polyjuice one of us and go into town for food."

"Unless there are dementors there too," Ron grumbled.

"She couldn't produce a Patronus with a piece of Voldemort's soul around her neck," Fred looked at Ron disapprovingly. "Shut up."

"You sounded like Dad until that last part," Ron rolled his eyes.

"We can't stand around here bickering," Hermione said, holding taking Ron's uninjured arm, and holding out her free hand to Elizabeth. "Elizabeth will have to lead."

Elizabeth took her hand and kept her other arm around Fred's waist. He put one arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and then held out his other hand, glaring at Ron until the younger wizard slunk over to allow himself to be pulled to his brother's side. "We're not losing any body parts this time," Fred said firmly. "We stay together until we're sure it's safe. Got it?"

"More like Mum, then," Ron muttered, but seemed to understand the sentiment the older man was conveying.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and tightened her grip on Hermione and Fred before murmuring a charm and spinning on the spot.

*S*S*

"It's a…farm…" Ron said, looking at the big house in the middle of a field.

"It's rural," Hermione said. "But that's good. Less chance of Muggles walking by. It's more like… an American plantation."

"Where do you keep all that information?" Ron looked at her head as if he were going to find a trap door.

"The Fidelius Charm," Hermione said, ignoring the question, "is complicated, and requires three witches or wizards. So," she stepped several yards away from the house. "Elizabeth and Fred, we need to form a triangle around the house."

Elizabeth and Fred went in opposite directions around the structure, standing facing out like Hermione.

"You have to repeat my spells," Hermione called. "Ready?"

"Yes," the other two chorused, wands raised.

"Alright then," Hermione took a deep breath and pointed her wand into the field. "In limine, hincus, absit invidia."

"In limine, hincus, absit invidia." Elizabeth and Fred repeated.

"Non nocet, Non hostem," Hermione said clearly.

Elizabeth and Fred repeated her line, and they went on like that, back and forth as Hermione carefully laid out the spells. After several lines, Hermione had them all turn toward the house, and Elizabeth saw that the image was starting to waver, like it was a picture, out of focus.

"You don't repeat this," Hemione said then. "Just keep your wands on the house."

"Dictum meum pactum," she said. "Serviam servabo. Consummatum est,"

The house vanished. Completely disappeared right before Elizabeth's eyes. She blinked, as her eyes reeled from the suddenly change.

"Here," Hermione gestured the other three to her, and when they were in a tight knot, whispered. "The new headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is 352 Kettlewealth Lane, Maidstone, Kent."

Elizabeth looked up, and the house came back into view. "Wicked."

"It worked," Hermione said, a bit out a breath.

"Of course it did," Ron slung his good arm around her shoulders. "You're brilliant."

"Let's go inside," Elizabeth said. "If this place is like the London house, there's a magical fridge."

"You guys know that food isn't free, right?" Fred followed the others into the house. "Maybe we should be careful."

"Maybe we should rig it so that the fridge charges the Malfoys," Ron said, leading the way into the kitchen.

"Or we could just _eat_," Elizabeth said, sitting at the table and looking around. "Apparently this house belonged to Sirius' Uncle Alphard, so we don't need to worry about too much Dark Magic. Sirius' mum blasted him off the family tree."

"What are you doing over there?" Fred looked at Hermione, who was sitting at the table, bent over a bit of parchment she'd pulled from her bag.

"I'm trying to work out how to modify the _Lexis_ charm."

"Like the map?" Ron pulled bacon out of the refrigerator and looked helplessly at Elizabeth. "What do I do with it now?"

Hermione nodded "Like the map, except there can't be a password. I just want Order members to be able to read it."

"To tell them where we are?" Fred nodded. "Just give it to Elizabeth, Ron."

"I'm teaching you to cook," Elizabeth said to her fiancé, taking the bacon from Ron. "Why don't you sit over there where you'll be safe?"

"I want to tell them where we are," Hermione said, as if there weren't other conversations going on around her. "But I don't want anyone else to be able to read it. It doesn't need to be insulting or anything."

"You talk that way?" Fred asked, aghast. "In a Marauder's house?"

"No more talking now," Hermione said. "Elizabeth, entertain your boy and his brother."

"Oh sure, now he's _my _boy's brother," Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm cooking, which I think was our first mission."

"Why don't we check out the rest of the house?" Fred suggested, heading toward the living room.

"Shut down the floo, if it's still running," Elizabeth said, tossing bacon into a pan. "It would be a shame to go to all that trouble of making Hermione the Secret Keeper, then having Voldemort come through the floo."

"Right," Fred said affably, going into the other room with Ron.

"You think it's safe to send a message?" Elizabeth asked Hermione.

"If I can get this to work," Hermione nodded. "You don't want to let Snape know where you are?"

"Yeah, but I'm not wild about the idea of Remus knowing where we are."

"You should give him a break," Hermione shook her head. "I'm sure he'll come to his senses."

"Dad looked mad enough to make that happen," Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "But I don't think he would on his own."

"There," Hermione said, holding out the parchment. "Look at that."

Elizabeth looked. "It's blank."

"Good," Hermione grinned. "Fred! Ron!"

The Weasley boys appeared, and she shoved the paper under their noses. "Look."

"That's too obvious, Hermione," Fred said. "You can't just send a note."

Hermione's smile broadened. "Wait, just a second." She waved her wand again, muttering, and then held the parchment up again.

"Where did the note go?" Ron asked.

"No where," Fred looked at his brother. "It's right there."

"Just for you," Hermione did a little dance. "I charmed it so that only male Order members over the age of 18 could read it."

"That's almost everybody," Elizabeth said, putting bacon sandwiches on the table. "Just you, me, Ron, Tonks, and Mrs. Weasley, really."

"Well I can charm it for anything," Hermione said. "Like an age line. I'm thinking we can't trust Mundungus, but we can't be sure that he won't be considered an Order member." She sat back down at the table. "How old is Snape?"

"Thirty-eight," Elizabeth said. "But if anyone asks, he's thirty-five."

"The dungeon bat lies about his age?" Ron asked.

Elizabeth glared at him, "Kind of like you lie about how many girls you've—

"Wow, an age line," Fred broke in hurriedly. "Tell us more, Hermione."

Hermione folded the parchment. "Male Order members between the ages of 37 and 39 will be able to read the message. To everyone else, it will say…" she held up the folded note.

"To Severus Snape," Elizabeth read. "And it'll be blank inside?"

"No," Hermione shook her head. "That would look suspicious. It'll look like a harmless note about a student who needs Potions tutoring. But we've got to send it. Hedwig is at Spinner's End?"

"I thought it'd be best," Elizabeth said sadly. "I can't very well tote her around with us."

"I'll go into town and use a Post Owl," Hermione said.

"You can't," Ron said startled. "You'll be recognized."

"I have Polyjuice Potion," Hermione said. "And some random Muggle hair for just this kind of thing. If anyone asks, I'll be a mother sending a note to my child's Headmaster."

*S*S*

Severus Snape sat at the head of the quiet Great Hall. The only sounds were utensils against plates, and an occasional murmur. The silence didn't concern him. He'd always been annoyed by the lack of discipline that Albus had installed. He much preferred the school to be run as he'd always run his House.

The evening Post arrived, carted in by Filch, since all the mail was being carefully screened by order of the Ministry.

"Here you are, Headmaster," Filch grumbled, handing him a folded piece of parchment. "Parents thinkin' that you have time for helpin' brats."

"Hmm," Severus said noncommittally, the handwriting on the outside of the note sparking recognition in the back of his mind. He slid the note into his inner robe pocket, not pulling it out until he was back in his dungeon rooms.

_The new headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is 352 Kettlewealth Lane, Maidstone, Kent._

Severus frowned, then, rummaging in his desk, found a packet of papers. Laying them on the desktop, he compared the handwriting. "Miss Granger," he said quietly.

"Where are you going, Professor?" Alecto Carrow's cold voice slid over him like razor blades as he made his way to the front door.

Severus glanced at the clock in the front hall. "Hagrid was supposed to have his dunderheaded-detainees back by this time. Clearly I have to have a conversation with him about time management." He stalked out the door and away from the prying eyes of the Muggle Studies teacher.

He did, indeed, walk down to the Forbidden Forest, holding the pretense of going in search of Hagrid. However, once he'd gone beyond the tree line, and past the line of Apparation-ban, he did just that, popping into his backyard at Spinners' End.

"Can you read this?" Severus held the note up to Tonks.

She scanned it. "Requests for private tutoring? Has this parent met you?"

Severus made a growling noise, but shook his head. "Where is your other half?"

"Upstairs, painting little baby dragons on the wall of the nursery."

Severus headed up the stairs, stopping in the doorway of the bedroom that they'd declared to be the nursery. Sirius had, without thinking, mentioned that Elizabeth's room had once been a nursery, but the glares the other two men gave him at the thought of not keeping their angel's room exactly as it was made him reconsider his point.

"Your penitence continues?" Severus said dryly.

"She says jump…" Remus smiled back. "Or paint, in this case."

"You deserve it," Severus said. "Look at this for a moment." He held out the parchment.

Remus took the sheet and read it. "A new Headquarters?"

Severus nodded. "It appears that Miss Granger has set up a Fidelius Charm."

"You want to adopt that girl, don't you?" Remus grinned.

"Seems imprudent, now that she's of age," Severus smirked.

"Ah, then you could marry her."

Severus grimaced. "A woman young enough to be my daughter? I think not."

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," Remus grinned.

"Nymphadora is eight years younger, not twenty."

"Alright, alright," Remus shrugged. "We need to show Sirius."

"The mutt is still here?"

"Your daughter left him homeless, remember?"

"She should have asked," Severus sighed. "I would have taken care of it before her birthday."

"She didn't want to mention the money to you."

"Well then, you should have."

"I'm full of bad decisions lately," Remus sighed. "Let's show this to Sirius and go over there. Might put you in a better mood."

"I'm in a fine mood."

"Minerva says you're baiting Voldemort."

"Minerva should keep her nose out of it," Severus snapped, taking the parchment and heading out into the hall.

When they reached Sirius, he examined the paper. "This…" his tongue tied, and he thought for a moment, trying to communicate without saying what the Fidelius Charm was prohibiting. "One of my old houses."

"Perfect, perhaps you can move in," Severus said swiftly, striding back down the stairs. "Everyone ready?"

"Are you coming, Dora?" Remus looked at Tonks.

"Going where?"

Severus shook his head. "The parchment is charmed. Just for the three of us, though I don't know how she did it. You can't charm writing for specific people, at least not that I know of." He looked at Tonks. "We'll be back soon."

*S*S*

Severus Snape had never been prouder than pinned to the wall by his daughter's wand tip. "I am Severus Tobias Snape," he said calmly. "My mother was Eileen Prince, and you used to wear her emerald bracelet on your wrist."

Elizabeth released him. "It doesn't work anymore," she said, shrugging. "Since my birthday."

"You're closing your mind?"

"I'm trying," Elizabeth said, not meeting his eyes. Severus looked at Fred, who shook his head.

Changing the subject, Severus looked behind him out the door. "Remus and the Mutt are out there. I promise that they are who they say they are."

"Bring them in so we can close the door," Hermione called from the kitchen.

"Ah," Severus followed her voice as Fred ushered in the other two men. "Our Secret Keeper."

"I'm sorry about sending the note to Hogwarts," Hermione said as they all filed into the kitchen.

"The parchment worked beautifully," Severus assured her. "How did you charm it to reveal itself only to the three of us?"

"It's not," Hermione shook her head. "It's charmed for Order members in a very specific age range. We weren't sure we could… trust… all the Order members."

"Astute," Severus nodded once. "Alright then, you," he motioned to Hermione, "tell me what has happened since Remus saw you in London. You," he pointed at Remus, "and you," he gave another jab of his finger at Elizabeth, "go talk."

"I just about to make tea," Elizabeth protested.

"You were just about to do as you were told," Severus said sharply.

Ron, Fred, and Sirius stood awkwardly to the side. "What are we supposed to do?" Ron whispered.

"It's best to stay still until given instructions," Sirius whispered back.

"I'll make tea," Hermione said. "Sit down, guys."

*S*S*

"I went back to her," Remus said quietly, standing awkwardly with Elizabeth in the living room.

"Good for you." Elizabeth said coldly.

"I thought that's what you wanted," Remus ran one finger along the woodwork on the mantle.

"I don't care what you do," Elizabeth shrugged.

"I'm sorry," Remus said softly. "Dora has forgiven me, and we're doing well."

"Good for you."

"Elizabeth…" Remus sighed. "I said I was sorry."

"And that's nice," Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "But that won't keep you from taking off again."

"I won't," Remus said firmly. "Listen to me," he took a step toward her, and when she didn't move away, put his hands on her shoulders. "When you were born, your father was over the moon. If Severus Snape knew how to jig, he would have. And I thought I'd never be able to have that. But I have. With you, and now with this baby. But with you, I didn't have to worry that my condition would hurt you. You had your father. I was afraid that I couldn't be the father Severus was to you. Maybe all I was capable of was being a godfather."

"All?" Elizabeth glared at him. "You think our relationship is less than mine and Dad's?"

"No," Remus shook his head. "I'm so sorry if that's what you felt when I told you. I was an idiot. But I can't leave here knowing that you're still upset with me."

Elizabeth looked down at her feet, then back up at him. "If you leave any of us again, I'll kill you myself."

"Fair enough," Remus nodded soberly. "Never, I promise."

"Good, then." Elizabeth bit her lip. "I don't like it when we fight."

"Me either," Remus put his arms around her and hugged her hard. "I love you so much, Sevling."

"I love you too," Elizabeth put her arms around his waist. "I wish I could have let you come with us," she muttered into his shirt.

"When we go back in there, is Hermione going to be telling your father that you attacked the Ministry?"

Elizabeth grimaced and pulled away from him. "Maybe we should stay here for a little bit."

"Find anything worthwhile?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Now we just have to figure out how to destroy it. The diary was easy, I just stabbed it. I still don't know how Dumbledore destroyed the ring, but it probably wasn't with a basilisk fang. Not that we have one lying about anyway."

"Yes we do," Remus said suddenly. "You had me go back down to the Chamber, remember? To get the fangs and the venom for Severus. I'm sure he still has them, you know how anal he is about ingredients."

"Dad!" Elizabeth sprinted out of the room and into the kitchen, Remus hot on her heels.

"Elizabeth Rose, do you have any idea the waves you four created—

"The basilisk venom," Elizabeth interrupted. "Do you still have it?"

"The Ministry—

"Dad!" Elizabeth held up the locket they'd hung on a nail in the kitchen. "The basilisk venom, from second year. We need it to destroy the Horcrux."

Severus was silent for a long moment. "We can't get it out of Hogwarts. You can't Apparate with it, you can't summon it, you can't floo with it. It's impossible. And you can't get near Hogwarts."

Elizabeth pressed her lips together. It couldn't be impossible. 


	11. Finished and Nowhere Close to It

"This is a terrible idea," Ron said nervously.

"It's creepy," Fred agreed, grimacing.

"Shut up, you," Hermione said. "We can't wait until Snape can smuggle the venom out of the castle and drive it here. It will take too long, and the locket is causing us all to go crazy. We have to get rid of it."

"Can your dad even drive?" Ron looked at Elizabeth.

"He thinks he can," Elizabeth said, her voice high. "Don't look at me like that." She nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and folded her arms. "It's weird," she said. "No chest."

"That's because you're 11," Hermione said, tucking the vial of Youth Solution back into the cupboard. "At least, you look it."

"It's creepy," Fred said again. "Makes me feel dirty."

"Yeah, don't kiss or anything," Ron said. "So what's the plan?"

"We all Apparate to the Forbidden Forest. We stay there while Elizabeth gets into the castle and down to Snape's personal lab. She destroys the locket." Hermione handed Elizabeth a pile of clothes. "Put these on."

"You have a Hogwarts uniform in that bag?"

"I'll charm it to be Slytherin colors and the Slytherin crest," Hermione said by way of answer. "Don't put on the locket until the last minute."

Elizabeth went into the pantry to change. "I'm so short!"

"Because those Muggles starved you," Fred growled.

The effects of the locket's presence were clear. Elizabeth had never heard Fred say 'Muggle' like that.

She emerged from the pantry, dressed in the uniform. "It's too big."

"That's because it's yours from when you were 16," Hermione set to work altering it. "You're sure you can get into Snape's quarters?"

"There's no way he changed the password. He hasn't in years."

"Alright," Hermione stepped back to look at her. "Put some concealer on your scar. No need to advertise."

Elizabeth nodded, going into the bathroom and looking at herself in the mirror. A skinny, dark-haired girl stared back. "Fred?" she called, gripping the edge of the sink.

"Hey," Fred appeared behind her, pulling the door closed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "But…" she pulled her engagement ring off. "I can't wear this today, and I want you to keep it for me."

"Sure," Fred pointed his wand at a piece of floss, transfiguring it into a chain. He put the chain through the ring and fastened it around his neck, dropping it down his shirt. "The only time I'm wearing a necklace."

"Thanks," Elizabeth smiled awkwardly.

"What?" Fred put his arms around her.

Elizabeth relaxed into him. "Feels weird, being so much smaller than you."

"You've always been shorter than me," Fred shrugged. "And you'll be back to normal as soon as we get rid of the locket. You mean it's weird to be so much younger than me."

"This is not a good thing for our relationship," Elizabeth laughed softly. "I usually don't date men eight years older."

"You'd better not," Fred grinned, then sobered. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Elizabeth nodded into his chest. "You'll be waiting in the Forest?"

"Hippogriffs couldn't drag me away," Fred promised.

Elizabeth hugged him hard, then turned back toward the mirror. "Hopefully I don't get stuck like this."

Fred smiled. "It wouldn't be ideal, no. But I _did_ fall in love with you… when you looked just about like this." He stood behind her, his arms locked around her shoulders. "Want me to take some of that potion? Become a 13-year-old boy again?"

Elizabeth snorted. "We need to go _right now_ before you get any more bright ideas."

*S*S*

The Hogwarts grounds were quiet. The autumn air was turning cold, but Elizabeth doubted it was chilly temperatures that kept the students inside.

They'd planned their arrival during a First Year Slytherin free period. Elizabeth needed to have a reason for being in the halls if caught.

She slipped through the door, and was a mere ten steps or so inside when a voice snapped out of the darkened hallway. "Shouldn't you be in your dormitory?"

Elizabeth glanced up to see Professor Vector, the Arithmancy professor. She thanked Merlin that it was a professor who didn't know the First Years.

"Yes, sir. Just heading there now."

"Be quick about it. Professor Snape has made it very clear that wandering is not permitted."

"Yes, sir." Elizabeth used the man's words as an excuse to scurry away, down the nearest set of stairs.

When she reached the familiar portrait that led to the rooms she'd spent so much time in over the years, she had a moment of doubt. She had no idea if her father still stayed there, or if he'd moved into the rooms that Albus and Minerva had used.

She should have known that Severus was not a man of change. The portrait swung open at her word, and the rooms inside looked exactly as they'd always looked. On her way to the door that led down to the lab, she stopped and peeked in the door of her bedroom. It had only been a few months, but it seemed like a lifetime ago that she'd slept there. She had a sudden desire to lie down on the bed and go to sleep. She could wake up the next morning; Severus would be sitting at the table, and she could go to class. Everything would be back to normal.

Somehow, she thought that the despair she was feeling at the moment had little to do with the locket around her neck.

She went downstairs to the lab and looked at the locked ingredient cabinet. She was certain that Severus would keep the venom there, it was too valuable to leave sitting out. She knew the password, of course. Severus didn't speak as quietly as he thought, but Elizabeth would never have used it. Until now.

"Lily Rose," she said, pointing her wand at the lock.

The door sprung open immediately, and Elizabeth started her search.

"What do you think you're doing?" Severus' voice cut across the room.

Elizabeth spun around to see him standing at the foot of the stairs, arms crossed.

"A member of my own House!" Severus said sharply. "Stealing is grounds for expulsion, young lady."

"Dad!" Elizabeth cast _Muffliato_ to block anyone who might be listening to the professor yell.

"Pardon me?" Severus glared at her.

"Dad, look at me," Elizabeth tried again.

Severus scowled, examining her face for a moment before a look of recognition passed over his face. "Hatchling? What happened to you?"

"Youth Solution," Elizabeth said. "It's the only way we could think of to get in."

"I told you that I would bring the venom," Severus narrowed his eyes.

"But that was going to take ages," Elizabeth protested. "And the locket has us at each others' throats."

Severus frowned. "I should have taken in myself," he muttered.

"You couldn't," Elizabeth said softly, looking at him. "It's… powerful."

"And it preys on the injured," Severus pressed his lips together. She was right, of course. His soul was wounded by the Dark Mark. Being alone with the Horcrux was ill-advised at best.

"It was extremely risky to come here," Severus scolded, going to the cabinet and removing a tall vial. "And Youth Solution isn't to be played with. I can only hope that Miss Granger remembered to temper it with ground pearl, or you could very well be a child for longer than you'd like."

"Just because I look like I'm eleven, doesn't mean you can yell at me."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "_If_ I was yelling, and I was not, it would be justified not by how you look but by the fact that you are my daughter. I reserve the right to be annoyed by your impulsive schemes."

He pulled a beaker from a shelf and placed it on the countertop. "Put it in here," he ordered, pointing to the beaker.

Elizabeth slipped the locket off her neck and dropped it, with a load clink, into the glass container. Severus unstoppered the vial and tipped it carefully over the locket. The venom hit the locket, smoked at bit, but caused no damage, other than a bit of tarnish on the metal.

"We need it to open," Severus said thoughtfully. "Slytherin's locket…" He looked at Elizabeth suddenly. "Speak to it."

"What?"

"Tell it to open. Like when you opened the Chamber."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "You can't even say 'Parseltongue', can you?"

"_Elizabeth_," Severus said warningly.

"Alright, alright," Elizabeth took a deep breath. "On three then… one…two…three…_open_."

The last word came as a hiss and a snarl and the golden doors of the locket swung wide with a little click.

Behind both of the glass windows within blinked a living eye, dark and handsome as Tom Riddle's eyes had been before he turned them scarlet.

Severus poured the venom over the frantically swiveling orbs, and the room was filled with a loud, long, drawn-out scream.

"You don't think he can… feel it, do you?"

Severus shook his head. "While it might do him good to feel such pain, he won't. There's too many pieces, he's held together by the thinnest of threads."

Elizabeth inspected the smoldering locket. "It's gone."

"Yes," Severus nodded, putting his arms around his daughter. "So you knew the password to the cupboard, hmm?"

"I've never used it before," Elizabeth promised.

"I believe that," Severus said gently. "We've been though a lot since you were this size."

"You don't think… if I went to sleep right now, I'd wake up and actually be eleven again?"

Severus snorted. "Sorry, I've tried to de-age you via sleep. It doesn't work."

"I have to go," Elizabeth said unconvincingly. "The others are waiting for me in the Forest."

"I have an appointment out there as well," Severus sighed, releasing her and pointing his wand at a bag on the floor. Shrinking it, he tucked it into his robe. "Come, I'll walk you."

They walked in silence out onto the grounds and toward the forest. Just inside the tree line, Ron, Hermione, and Fred waited.

"It's done," Severus answered their questioning looks. "Miss Granger, you tempered the Youth Solution—

"Ground pearl, yes sir," Hermione broke in.

Elizabeth looked at Fred, who was suddenly focused on something behind her. She turned around, just as they all heard, "Oi! Fred! Ron!"

George Weasley came bounding toward them, grabbing one brother in each arm. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know, just visiting," Fred said. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Picking up a book shipment," George said. "Hopefully, anyway." He looked at Severus.

"It's a sad looking lot," Severus said, handing over the bag he'd miniaturized. "But it's better than nothing."

"We appreciate it," George said gratefully. "The Ministry's been restricting the purchase of textbooks, can you believe it? Purebloods and Half-bloods only, and you can't buy multiple copies."

"Why do you need textbooks?" Ron looked at his brother in confusion.

"Snape didn't tell you?" George looked around. "Angelina and I are running a Muggle-born school in the basement of the joke shop."

"Really?" Hermione lit up, launching herself at the wizard, hugging him hard.

"Yeah," George laughed, looking a little embarrassed by Hermione's sudden physical attack. "The Headmaster here has been smuggling supplies."

"Dad?" Elizabeth looked at him. "That's so… rebellious."

"The Order was formed long before you were even thought of," Severus reminded her. "We were the original rebels. You lot are just copies," he smirked. "Besides that, it is just good business. Our word would be poorer if we'd never had many brilliant Muggle-born witches and wizards."

"So you an Angelina are serious?" Ron asked.

"Actually, yes," George nodded. "Not that it will do us much good. Have you two heard about the new restrictions?" He looked at Fred and Elizabeth.

"What?" Fred looked at Elizabeth, who looked back helplessly.

"They've passed legislation 'protecting' Pure-blood. Pure-blooded witches and wizards are no longer being given marriage licenses to marry half-bloods or Muggle-borns. Or Muggles." he sighed. "I looked for a bit of Muggle-blood in our background, but our blood is pure as spring water."

"Dad?" Elizabeth looked at her father for confirmation.

"Never mind," he shook his head. "The Dark Lord tried to force this type of thing though during the first war. Controlling Ministry members and whatnot. When this is over, you'll be married."

"If Vol—

"Stop!" George and Severus shouted, the latter clamping his hand over Elizabeth's mouth.

"What?" Elizabeth asked, shaking herself loose. "I thought we were going to use his name."

"There's a Trace," George said. "On his name. It's how they've been tracking members of the Order."

"That's how they found us at the Dursleys'," Fred went pale. "I said it. I was angry about that shrew of a woman and her husband, and I said I'd save my anger for… Him…"

"It doesn't matter," Ron shook his head. "You didn't know."

"Now you do," Severus said shortly. "And I must be going before I'm missed. The rest of you should get out of here. There are too many eyes."

"Before we go," Hermione leaned forward, whispering in George's ear.

"He's got a girlfriend, Hermione," Fred teased.

"Just filling him in on our secret," Hermione rolled her eyes.

Severus shook his head. "Goodbye, Hatchling," he kissed his daughter and turned back toward the castle, purposefully striding across the grass. George took his leave as well, Disapparating with a pop after giving his brothers one last slap on the back.

Elizabeth watched Fred carefully, catching the pain in his eyes as his other half disappeared. It was a bond she'd never fully understand; never share. She put her hand in his and squeezed, and he squeezed back. They stood in silence for a moment while Ron and Hermione were distracted by some kind of strange pink mold on a nearby tree.

"I think it's moving!" Ron said, poking at it with his wand.

"Don't prod at it, Ron!" Hermione batted his hand away.

"Let's go," Fred broke in, looking at Elizabeth. "Whereto?"

"Godric's Hollow," Elizabeth said, decidedly.

Fred raised an eyebrow, but Elizabeth pressed on.

"You Know Who was only afraid of Dumbledore, right? Maybe he visited his hometown in order to figure out how to defeat him. He loves psychological warfare. He used you against me in the Chamber," Elizabeth looked at Fred. "He would have loved to find out about Albus' sister."

*S*S*

The headstone was made of white marble. Elizabeth did not need to kneel or even approach very close to make out the words engraved on it.

LILY EVANS

BORN 30 JANUARY 1960

DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981

Fred stayed by the entrance to the cemetery, waving the other two on up the road toward the houses. He stood there, waiting, until he couldn't stand the sight of her, standing alone, anymore.

When he reached her side, she was looking at the headstone beside her mother's.

"What is it?" Fred stood behind her, folding his arms over her collarbones.

"I never… thought about it," she said quietly.

"Thought about what?" Fred asked. "The actual grave?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "That she'd be buried next to James. That she's spending eternity next to a man that isn't my father."

"She's not there," Fred said gently, tightening his hold. "And neither is James Potter."

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," Elizabeth read the inscription on the headstone. She took in her breath sharply. "Isn't that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?"

"It doesn't mean defeating death like that," Fred soothed, rubbing one thumb on her arm. "It means… living beyond death. Life after death."

"But she isn't living," Elizabeth said, tears coming to her eyes before she could stop them, boiling hot, then instantly freezing in the night air. She tried to wipe them away, but Fred's arms were pinning hers down, and so she turned and buried her wet face in his shoulder.

"I know," Fred said softly.

"I should have brought something," Elizabeth said, muffled by his shirt.

Wordlessly, Fred raised his wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of roses blossomed before him. He plucked it from the air and handed it to Elizabeth, who gave him a watery smile, wiped her eyes, and laid the wreath on Lily's grave.

"It's late," Fred said gently. "We can come back tomorrow, but it's dangerous right now."

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said suddenly, turning back into his embrace.

"No need for that," Fred whispered, rubbing her back.

"I mean for making us come here without a real reason."

"I know what you meant," Fred rocked her a little. "And I meant what I said. There's no need to be sorry."

"But—

"Hey," Fred interrupted. "You've never seen it. You needed to. I get it." He kissed the top of her head. "We've got to find Bathilda's house if you want to ask her any questions."

"How are we going to find it?" Elizabeth looked at the row of houses up the street. "We can't very well go knocking on doors."

"Maybe there are names on the postboxes," Fred said, keeping one arm around her as they joined Hermione and Ron out on the road.

The foursome started walking up the street, Hermione whispering about disillusionment charms, and how they should at least put Elizabeth under the invisibility cloak.

"It's not like it keeps you from moving. Elizabeth?" Hermione looked at her friend, who was suddenly staring down the street. "Elizabeth?"

"Look," Elizabeth said pulling away from Fred and heading to a dark mass that stood at the very end of the row of houses.

"What?" Ron squinted as they followed her. "I don't… oh!"

They saw it. The Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily. The hedge had grown wild in the sixteen years since Hagrid had taken Elizabeth from the rubble that lay scattered amongst the waist-high grass. Most of the cottage was still standing, though entirely covered in dark ivy and snow, but the right side of the top floor had been blown apart; that, Elizabeth was sure, was where the curse had backfired. The group stood at the gate, gazing up at the wreck of what must once have been a cottage just like those that flanked it.

"I wonder why nobody's rebuilt it?" whispered Ron.

"Maybe you can't rebuild it?" Elizabeth replied. "Maybe it's like injuries from Dark Magic and you can't repair the damage?" She put her hand on the rusty gate.

Fred put his hand over hers. "You're not going inside," he said firmly. "It looks unsafe—"

He was interrupted by a sign that rose out of the ground in front of them, wooden with golden letters that said:

On this spot, on the night of 31 October 1981,

Lily Evans and James Potter lost their lives.

Their daughter, Elizabeth, remains the only witch or wizard

ever to have survived the Killing Curse.

This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left

in its ruined state as a monument to their sacrifice

and as a reminder of the violence

that tore apart their family.

Elizabeth read the words over and over again. "It was torn apart before that," she said quietly.

"Snape knew what he was sacrificing when he sent you into hiding," Hermione said. "And by now, everyone knows he's your father. The sign is just old."

"Besides, it's not like he was a bad guy," Ron piped in. "He did sacrifice himself trying to save you and your mum."

Elizabeth shook her head. "I know. But what if they'd never been found? Would I have eventually been Elizabeth Potter? Would I have lived in hiding forever with my Mum and James? Would I have called him Dad and had brothers and sisters? Jane and Harry Potter?"

"Harry is a terribly common name," Hermione wrinkled her nose. "There's so many wonderful names, and you pick Harry?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "It's a fake child, Hermione."

"Well, then name him something interesting. Like Hugo."

"How about we fight about children's names another time," Fred said, pointing toward a house a few doors away. "Isn't that what we came for?"

"Bathilda Bagshot," Hermione said. "You think it's late enough to go without being seen?"

There was a general consensus that there was never a good time to go into a woman's house and ask if she remembered seeing the Dark Lord hanging about, and so they headed in the direction of the house.

"By the way," Fred whispered in Elizabeth's ear, "we'll name our baby 'Hugo' over my dead body."

"We can probably talk about that later," Elizabeth whispered back, as they arrived at the front door. "But we're also not naming a baby 'Bathilda'."

*S*S*

It turned out that there was more than one reason not to name their first-born 'Bathilda'. Other than the fact that it was, in Elizabeth's opinion, a god-awful name, the vision of Nagini pouring out of the old woman's neck would be enough to ruin the name for several generations.

"Hermione, watch out!"

Elizabeth saw the snake falling from the rafters, hissing wildly. Everything was chaos: shelves smashed from the wall, and splintered china flew everywhere as Elizabeth jumped over the bed and seized the dark shape she knew to be Hermione.

"Betsy!" Fred was at the door of the bedroom now, and Elizabeth screamed at him to get back, even though the fever pitch of her voice brought the pain in her forehead to a staggering level.

Suddenly, the scream was not her own, it was His. Her head hurt so badly that she felt ripped from her body, as if she was dying without the release of pain she thought she'd feel.

_They had not drawn the curtains; Voldemort saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small dark-haired girl in green pajamas. The child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke…_

_The door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the girl and handed her to the mother. He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning…_

_The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open._

_He was over the threshold as James came sprinting into the hall. It was easy, too easy. He had not even picked up his wand…_

"_Lily, take Elizabeth and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"_

_Hold him off, without a wand in his hand!_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

_The green light filled the cramped hallway, and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut._

_He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear… He climbed the steps, forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes piled against it with a lazy wave of his hand._

"_Not Elizabeth, not Elizabeth, please not Elizabeth!"_

"_Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside, now."_

"_Please no, take me, kill me instead—_

"_This is my last warning—_

"_Have mercy, please! Not Elizabeth!"_

"_Stand aside!"_

_The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. The child had not cried all this time: She could stand, clutching the bars of her crib, and she looked up into the intruder's face with a kind of bright interest._

_He pointed the wand very carefully into the girl's face: He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger. The child began to cry. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage—_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

_And then he broke: He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped and screaming, but far away, far away…_

"No,"Elizabeth moaned.

_The snake rustled on the filthy, cluttered floor, and he had killed the girl, and yet she was the girl…_

"No…"

_And now he stood at the broken window of Bathilda's house, immersed in memories of his greatest loss, and at his feet the great snake slithered over broken china and glass… He looked down and saw something… something incredible…_

"No…"

"Betsy, it's all right!"

_He swooped down and picked up the smashed photograph. There he was, the unknown thief, the thief he was seeking…_

"No… I dropped it…."

"Elizabeth! Wake up! Wake up!" Fred's voice was clearer now, strained with fear.

She was Elizabeth… Elizabeth, not Voldemort… and the thing that was rustling beside her was not a snake. She opened her eyes.

"Betsy," Fred breathed, relief on his face. "Merlin's teeth." He put his hand on her forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Terrible, actually," Elizabeth said, blinking. "I feel like my whole body is sunburned, and… like my organs have been frozen, then thawed out in the microwave."

"She's fine," Ron said from her other side, clapping her painfully on the shoulder.

Elizabeth looked at Fred's hand, seeing a small sponge he'd obviously been using to wipe her face. "You've been… quite ill," he said quietly. "But we got away. Everything's all right now."


	12. Just a Story

Elizabeth looked around the room, recognizing her room at the new Headquarters. "How long ago did we leave?"

"Hours ago," Ron said. "It's nearly morning."

Fred sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her hair. "You've been shouting and moaning," he said, looking concerned. "I've never seen you that vocal during a…vision, or whatever."

"The snake bit you," Hermione said. "I've cleaned the wound and put some dittany on it."

Elizabeth looked down at her forearm where two half-healed puncture marks were evident. She lay back against the pillows. "We shouldn't have gone to Godric's Hollow. It's my fault."

"It's not," Hermione shook her head. "I really thought Dumbledore might have left the sword there for you."

"Yeah, well, he didn't, did he?" Elizabeth sighed. "Bloody lot of good going there did."

"I could have told you that," Severus' voice came from the door.

"Dad?"

"If you'd asked me," Severus continued, shooing the others out of the room with a look and a wave of his hand, "I could have told you that Albus hadn't gone near Godric's Hollow in years."

"That you know of," Elizabeth said stubbornly.

"I suppose that's true," Severus sat on the side of the bed and handed her a vial of stomach soother. "However, the sword is not what you went to find. Did you see what you wanted to see?"

Elizabeth took the potion in one gulp and then focused her attention on the blanket. "Have you been there?"

"To your mother's grave? Of course. Every Halloween. Every birthday. Every anniversary once I knew I had one."

"It doesn't bother you that she's buried with James?"

"Not as much as it bothers me that she's buried at all," Severus said calmly. "Elizabeth, that man died to protect you. We didn't get along as children, or even as young men, but in the end, he gave his life to protect my family. It's the least I can do to let him rest beside the woman he loved."

"You think he loved her?"

Severus smirked. "Why do you think his patronus was a stag?"

"But yours is a doe—

"A manifestation of the differences between us," Severus interrupted. "James wanted to be her great protector. I wanted to be all that was good in her." He looked sad, suddenly. "In the end, I suppose we both got what we wanted. He died in a blaze of honor, and I got you." He patted her hip through the blankets. "So no. It doesn't bother me. When I die, you can bury me beside her still. There's space on the other side."

"Don't talk like that."

Severus smiled. "It's the natural order of things, my child. It may be selfish, but I feel confident in my desire for you to bury me, as opposed to the other way around." He kissed her forehead. "So, do you want to tell me what you saw?"

Elizabeth sighed. "It was… a memory, not a link to what he was doing at the time. Except I was still looking through his eyes."

"A memory of what?"

"Halloween, 1981."

Severus pressed his lips together. "I've seen it myself. In the last few years, the Dark Lord put it in my mind during torture sessions."

"He… didn't want to kill her."

Severus brushed the hair off her forehead. "You're mistaken, hatchling. You've been quite ill."

Elizabeth shook her head. "I was in his head, Dad. He didn't want to kill her. He kept waiting for her to step aside, but she wouldn't. He only wanted me."

"Elizabeth," Severus said firmly. "The Dark Lord has never resisted the opportunity to kill someone, much less an Order member. He killed her because he's a cold-blooded madman. Any hesitation you may have felt must have come from you, not him."

Elizabeth considered arguing, but was clear that Severus was not to be moved on the subject. "You Know Who is linked with his snake," Elizabeth changed the subject. "The thing was inside Bathilda… wearing her like another skin. When it got me alone, it sent a message to You Know Who. I could hear it happen in my head. The snake was supposed to keep me there until he could come for me." She looked down at the blankets. "He left the snake there for me. He knew I'd come."

"He has magic that we've only dreamt of," Severus said quietly. "There's nearly limitless potential to a man willing to mortgage his soul."

Elizabeth sat up and threw back the blankets. "If only I'd killed the snake."

"Lie back down this instant," Severus ordered. "You've been bitten by a venomous snake, and we have no idea if there are other magical properties to its venom."

"Where's my wand?"

Severus clicked his fingers toward the bed. "Elizabeth Rose—

"Dad?" Elizabeth looked at him. "_Where is my wand?_"

Severus sighed and opened the drawer in the bedside table. Carefully, he handed her the wand. Her beautiful holly and phoenix feather wand, snapped nearly in two. One fragile strand of feather was holding the pieces together. The wood had splintered apart completely. Elizabeth took it into her hands as though it were a living thing that had suffered a terrible injury. She couldn't think properly. Everything was a blur of panic and fear. "Dad… Mend it. Please."

Severus frowned sadly. "Elizabeth… when it's broken like this—

"Try, Dad, please!"

"Hatchling," Severus said, his voice helpless. "It can't be helped." He put his arms around her and pulled her to sit next to him on the bed. "I'm so sorry, Rosie."

He was painfully reminded of how she'd sobbed at the loss of her broom. Severus didn't know what it felt like to lose a wand, but he thought it must feel a bit like losing an arm.

"How am I supposed to go on without a wand?" Elizabeth nearly choked on the words.

Severus kissed her temple, and pulled a wand from his robe pocket. "It's willow," he said quietly. "A bit shorter than yours, with dragon heartstring."

Elizabeth took the wand carefully. "Where did you get a wand? You Know Who's taken care of the major wand makers—

"It's your mother's," Severus interrupted gently. "I recovered it from the wreckage that night. I had thoughts of giving it to you when you were old enough, but I never really got around to it."

Elizabeth swished the wand through the air. It was a bit more bendy than her own, but the balance felt right in her hand. "Lumos," she cast, and watched the end of the wand glow.

"It works," Severus said, smiling a bit. "It won't be perfect. But hopefully it will do for now." He locked eyes with her. "Don't… let anything happen to it. Alright?"

"I won't," Elizabeth put her arms around his neck. The replacement wand didn't completely heal the ache in her heart, but it took away the fear of being disarmed against the world.

*S*S*

"Dad, you have to go," Elizabeth said the next day, drinking the tea Fred passed her. "People will wonder why the Headmaster is searching for Potions ingredients for so long."

"I'm thinking of quitting," Severus said blithely. "Let the Dark Lord run his own pure-blood factory."

"Don't be ridiculous," Tonks said, stirring her tea. "Remus and I are here now, and we all agreed that it's best for you to hold Hogwarts as long as possible."

"We really didn't need babysitters," Elizabeth protested.

"You're barely up and about," Remus put in.

"I made an appearance today," Severus said. "I stayed long enough for dinner and to give your sister and her friends detention." He looked at Fred.

"Ginny? What happened?"

"The idiot Gryffindors broke into my office and attempted to steal the Sword of Gryffindor."

"You have the Sword?" Elizabeth looked at him. "We could really use it. I have a theory that Dumbledore used it to destroy the ring."

"It's not the real Sword, it seems," Severus shook his head. "After the Ministry returned it earlier this year, I spoke to Bill Weasley about putting it away in a vault, and he declared it a clever copy. Wizard-made."

"You tried to lock it up instead of giving it to me?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"The Ministry obviously doesn't wish you to have it," Severus said reasonably. "I thought it would be best if the next headline in the prophet wasn't 'Elizabeth Evans Steals Treasured Artifact'."

"Why did they try to take it from you?" Fred asked.

"Well, your sister's story, since she was the only coherent one of the group, was that they thought that I couldn't give it to you freely, and so they thought they'd steal it and give it to you. At least, this is what I understood between Miss Lovegood blabbering on about Lorenges, and Mr. Longbottom making a painful wheezing noise." He snorted. "A fine lot, from the House that is supposed to breed bravery."

"Luna isn't a Gryffindor," Hermione sighed. "She just doesn't have any other friends."

"Usually Ravenclaws aren't so dotty," Severus shook his head. "Anyway, they are serving detention tonight with Hagrid, more so for being idiots than anything else. Although the back talk Miss Weasley gave me when I told her that underage witches should lie as low as possible certainly didn't help her case."

"Ginny's never been good with 'no'," Fred laughed. "Once, when she was 5, Bill told her that it was impossible to fly without a broom. He was 16, and supposed to have been watching her, but he had himself a little girlfriend that lived down the street at the time, so he wasn't paying attention, and she jumped out of the attic window. Broke her arm and two ribs. Mum was furious."

"Where were you when your sister was hurling herself to her death?" Hermione looked accusingly at Ron.

"Hey, I was 6," Ron held up both hands as if protecting himself from attack. "I wasn't really interested in what my little sister was doing."

"Yeah, he was busy driving George and I crazy," Fred agreed. "Besides, Bill was in charge."

"So you don't know where the real Sword is?" Elizabeth looked at Severus.

"If I knew Albus, and I'm not entirely sure that I did, he hid it somewhere. Probably living out some kind of 'you'll have it when you're ready' kind of King Arthur situation."

"Maybe that's where you get your flair for the dramatic," Remus smirked. "Anyway, Tonks and I can hold down the fort here. It's better for the baby anyway."

"When are you due?" Hermione asked Tonks.

"April," the other witch answered. "Remus is right. There are people who know I'm pregnant, even though we tried to be careful. It might be best if we aren't in a house associated with the Order."

"Like Headquarters?" Ron laughed.

"Well, without a _known_ connection," Tonks clarified. "We're still months off, and Remus is already started pacing circles around me."

"I am not," Remus protested, but Severus was already jumping to Tonks' support.

"He's taking attendance in the pack," the Headmaster said helpfully.

"Shut up," Remus growled. "Be nice, or I'll tell the bubble story."

Severus busied himself with his teacup.

"What bubble story?" Tonks asked.

"When Lily was pregnant, Severus attempted to literarily put her in a bubble. A huge, clear force-field of… what was it, Sev?"

"I think there are more important things to discuss," Severus shook his head. "Elizabeth, you said that you received a letter from Viktor Krum?"

"Oh, yeah," Elizabeth pulled a piece of parchment out of a drawer. "Actually, it's about Luna as well. A bit strange, really. We don't talk for years, and then only briefly at Bill's wedding. Then this letter shows up a week ago." She infolded the parchment and read aloud.

"_Elizabeth,_

_I hope this letter finds you and Hermione well."_

Ron snorted, and Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.

"_I wanted to warn you at Fleur's wedding, but it was cut short. I remember that you were friends with a girl with the last name of Lovegood. At the wedding, her father was wearing Grindelvald's sign. He killed many people in my country, including my grandfather. You must not trust this man or his daughter. He could be very dangerous. They say that Grindelvald feared only Dumbledore. Now that Dumbledore is gone, perhaps Grindelvald has followers. Be careful what 'friends' you trust._

_Viktor"_

Elizabeth handed the letter to Severus, who had reached out for it as she read the last lines.

"Grindelvald," he said thoughtfully. "That's a name from the past."

"Never heard of him," Elizabeth shook her head.

"That's because you didn't pay attention in History of Magic," Hermione accused.

"No one pays attention to Binns," Ron said. "He's pants at teaching, and it's the easiest class to sleep in." He caught Severus' eye and grimaced. "We never slept in your class, sir."

"I should say not," Severus said sternly. "And you will stay awake through all your classes when you return, unless you wish to spend time scrubbing the castle from top to bottom."

"No way am I going back after this," Ron shook his head. "Sorry, sir, but we're liable to be too old for school if we're not dead."

"Hmm," Severus raised an eyebrow. "Have you a particular talent that will support you without an education, Ronald?"

"Dad, is it really important to talk about this now?" Elizabeth cut in.

Severus leveled her with an icy stare. "I don't care if you're thirty when order has been restored to the world. You will return to Hogwarts to complete your last year. Is that clear?"

Elizabeth sighed and went to stand behind his chair, putting her arms around his neck and leaning down to kiss his cheek. "I love you, Dad," she said fondly.

"I am not joking, Elizabeth Rose."

"I know you're not," Elizabeth squeezed him hard. "But Grindelvald. Who was he?"

"'Who _is_ he' would be more accurate," Severus answered. "He's being held in Nurmengard for his crimes. He wanted very much to be what Tom Riddle became." He suddenly looked as if he were thinking of something far away. "He and Albus were fast friends until the Second World War."

"Dumbledore?" Fred looked unbelieving. "The Keeper of Light was friends—

"The world isn't always so easily divided," Severus interrupted. "And people aren't always Light or Dark. There are probably only two truly Dark wizards. Everyone else…" he trailed off, as if searching for words.

"They're chocolate chip biscuits," Tonks suggested. "Mixed, you know."

"A sweeter metaphor than fits the topic, perhaps," Severus raised an eyebrow. "However, more accurate than most. Albus hardly mentioned him, but from what I remember of his comments, they once shared a similar philosophy. However, while Albus Dumbledore can stomach many things; mindless, senseless, limitless killing caused their break."

"So Dumbledore… wanted to rid the world of Muggles?" Hermione asked softly.

Severus shook his head. "No. However, it doesn't do to idealize a mortal man, Hermione." He hoped the use of her first name would soften the conversation. "It was a time when many wizards believed that we should rule over Muggles. It was a time when the Muggles were killing each other, over and over. Widespread warfare that tore across the world. Muggles were increasing their power, their technology, and only so that they could murder each other. It was not an outlandish idea that they needed to be controlled. There was a general belief that they needed to be trained, like animals, for their own protection."

Hermione looked like she might be sick. "How can you even say that?" She snapped, looking at her teacher for the first time with a look that was anything but respectful and reverent.

Severus looked back at her calmly. "Are you angry, Miss Granger, because of their sentiment? Or are you angry that I'm daring to say anything but wonderful things about Albus Dumbledore?"

Hermione didn't answer, just stalked from the room. Ron followed her, shooting Severus an apologetic look.

"I'm going to check the wards," Severus said, and strode out of the room the other way, into the back garden.

The remaining Order members looked at each other, and Elizabeth sighed. "I'll go."

"You should rest," Fred said, stepping toward the door, but Elizabeth waved him off and went out the back door where Severus stood.

"You don't call him your father anymore," she said softly, standing beside him, looking at the same nothing.

"We were a family of convenience," Severus answered after a long pause. "He and I. I needed his protection, and he offered it."

"Why?" Elizabeth looked at him. "Tom Riddle was in the same situation, and Dumbledore did nothing."

Severus was quiet for even longer, and when he spoke, it was as if he was having to wrestle the words from his throat. "I believe that he was hoping to some day control you."

"Me? I wasn't even thought of—

"You were," Severus interrupted. "There was a prophecy—

"About how I would be marked as his equal," Elizabeth nodded. "I know."

"There are many things you do not know, my child." Severus said. "There was a prior prophecy. I found it. Among his things. We've known that we've been trapped in a web we don't understand. However, I never understood that the web was woven well before you were born."

"What was the prophecy?"

Severus closed his eyes briefly, remembering how he'd laid his hand on the orb. "The one essential downfall of the Dark Lord has come… Born to one who is not of our way… the man who calls himself father of choice will wield power over evil through his son and the decedents of that son…"

"Father of choice," Elizabeth repeated. "He adopted you because he knew I would be born."

"It would seem so."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that, other than next time I don't trust someone, I'm not letting you talk me into calling him 'grandfather'."

"You did have an extremely advanced sense about him," Severus sighed. "So it makes me wonder why you ignore that sense in ever other instance?"

"Don't be mean," Elizabeth slipped an arm around his waist. "What do you think of Viktor's letter?"

"Do you remember what the symbol looked like?"

Elizabeth thought a moment, then raised her wand and outlined the symbol in shimmering lines in the air. "It was a triangle…and a circle…and a line."

Severus stared at the drawing for a moment, then chuckled. "Oh for Merlin's sake," he said. "It's the Deathly Hallows."

"The what?" Elizabeth looked at him.

"The Deathly Hallows. It's a story. Three brothers escaped Death, who offered them a prize of their choosing. One chose a wand that could not be defeated in battle. The second wanted something that would bring back the dead. And the third chose a cloak of invisibility. It's a story. Lovegood's necklace must have been a novelty item."

"Why would Grindelwald have used it as his symbol?"

"Ultimate power, I'd imagine," Severus said. "But they aren't real."

"The invisibility cloak is real," Elizabeth said.

Severus looked at his daughter carefully. "However, there is nothing that will resurrect the dead. At least not without consequences. You understand that, right?"

Elizabeth nodded. "I know. I wasn't thinking that there was."

"Hmm," Severus thought for a moment. "However, I've seen this symbol before, somewhere. I simply can't place it."

"But if it's just a story—

"Than it doesn't matter. I agree." Severus started back toward the house, his arm around her shoulders. "You're sure you'll be alright?"

"Dad," Elizabeth leaned into him a bit. "I'm fine. I'm feeling loads better, and we've got to keep going. We can't afford to waste any more time."

"Alright," Severus sighed. He was quiet for a moment. "Elizabeth, about prophecies—

"It's okay, Dad. I really don't put much store in that stuff, I promise."

"Right," Severus nodded, pushing aside a feeling of dead. "You're right."


	13. Evans Watch

Elizabeth's dreams were confused and disturbing. Fred took to lying awake, her head on his chest, waiting for the next round of trembling and thrashing to begin.

"Easy," he said gently when she woke, panicky, convinced that somebody had called out to her in the distance. "Everything is fine."

"That's not true," she said, but let him soothe her back to sleep.

They fell into an uneasy routine until one night, when the dream was particularly violent. Nagini slithered in and out of bodies piled around, and every time she pointed her wand, the only spell that would come out was the Killing Curse. The bodies jerked as the green spell hit them, screams echoing in the large stone hall.

"Go back to sleep," Fred said, carding his hand through her hair.

"Going to make some tea," Elizabeth mumbled, slipping a jumper over her head and going down into the cold kitchen.

"It's late," Remus said, looking up from his own tea at the table.

"Yeah," Elizabeth shrugged, pouring water from the kettle on the stove.

"Dreams?"

"Don't want to talk about it," Elizabeth said, sitting across from him.

"Okay, let's talk about where your boyfriend is sleeping," Remus said conversationally.

Elizabeth felt something snap inside her. "Merlin's pants, Remus, we've been sleeping in the same bed since my 4th year. Lay off."

Remus opened and closed his mouth a bit, then shook his head. "You'd better never tell your father."

"Honestly? The world is crashing down and people care about my sleeping arrangements?"

"He's your father; he'll always care."

"Well, I haven't turned up pregnant yet, so he shouldn't worry."

"Elizabeth…"

"Don't worry, we won't tell him. Fred's terrified of Dad."

"He should be."

"I'm going back to bed," Elizabeth took her tea. "You should go as well."

"In a bit," Remus said softly, smiling. "Tonks sleeps better if she falls asleep with the bed to herself."

"Too much information," Elizabeth rolled her eyes and went back upstairs, tea in hand.

"Make sure you put the wards up," Fred mumbled from the bed.

"Doesn't matter. Remus knows you're in here."

"What?" Fred sat up, his hair tousled. "How does he know that?"

"We apparently aren't as stealthy as we thought." She put her tea on the table beside the bed and lay down. "Do you want tea?"

"No," Fred said, still sitting up. "How am I supposed to look at Remus tomorrow?"

"By remembering that you're a grown man and we've done nothing wrong. In fact, we could do about a million things in here and still have done nothing wrong."

Fred made a strangled noise in the back of his throat and flopped backward.

"Relax, my chivalrous boy," Elizabeth curled against him, pulling the blankets over both of them.

*S*S*

"Wait," Hermione said, jamming her hand into the small beaded bag that held all of their possessions. "'The Tale of the Three Brothers'?"

"That's what he said. He was acting like it was nothing, but it didn't seem like it." Elizabeth leaned against the kitchen counter.

"It's not nothing," Hermione said, pulling out _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_ from the bag. "It's right here. I've read it, and it… well… if it's true…"

"I don't remember that one," Ron said, looking at Fred who shook his head.

"Mum was partial to the ones that involved fairies and that stuff," Fred grinned. "Trying to make up for not having a girl until Ginny."

"The three brothers each get something from Death," Hermione said, finding the page in the book. "There was the wand, like Snape said… the Elder Wand." She read the story quickly to herself. "The second got a stone that would resurrect the dead, and the third got Death's Invisibility Cloak."

"Death's got an Invisibility Cloak?" Elizabeth asked.

"So he can sneak up on people," Ron said. "I remember this now. Thought it was boring, probably why we didn't read it much."

"It's scary, you know, Death and all," Fred said. "Plus, didn't all the brothers die?"

Hermione nodded. "The first one had the Elder Wand stolen and his throat slit," she said, referencing the page again. "The second one killed himself because, after he brought his love back from the dead, she was suffering in the living realm. And the third went willingly after giving the cloak to his son at a very old age."

"You Know Who is looking for a wand," Elizabeth said, drumming her fingers on the countertop. "I thought it was just to break my connection with his, but what if he's looking for the Elder Wand? It would make sense for him to try to torture the whereabouts out of well-known wand makers."

"Which is inline with your dreams," Fred said, rubbing his temple.

"Which means that Ollivander is in danger," Hermione said. "It's only a matter of time if You Know Who is looking for that much power."

"I'll have George pay him a visit," Fred nodded. "Tell him to go into hiding."

Elizabeth nodded. "Send Hedwig tonight."

"You said that He was looking for a thief," Ron said. "So Gregorovitch must have had the Wand at some point."

"So who has it now?"

*S*S*

"Ginny says you're running the place like a prison," Elizabeth said, when Severus came to Headquarters a week later.

"For the love of Merlin," Severus rolled his eyes. "Today's Hogwarts students wouldn't know proper discipline if it slapped them in the face."

"Dad," Elizabeth said, his own warning tone mirrored in her voice. "I know you like to be seen as the black bat of the Dungeons, but you didn't even run Slytherin house like this."

Severus frowned. "At anytime," he said quietly, "we could be attacked. At anytime, an army of Death Eaters could break our defenses and kill students. Or worse, they could take hostage children of those who are fighting with us."

"They couldn't control us that way," Elizabeth said, assuredly. "Everyone has children old enough to fight for themselves."

Severus laughed humorlessly. "You won't understand until you have children," he said quietly, staring at his hands, splayed on the tabletop. "But let me tell you this: If you were a hundred years old, and you were in danger, I would commit every heinous, unforgivable crime I needed to in order to save you. Nobility is gone the very moment of conception, Hatchling. I would kill for you, or die for you, but believe me, leaving you to battle for yourself would never be an option."

Elizabeth didn't respond, staring at her own smaller hands. She studied them, and his, wondering vaguely if, after this war, her hands would be as scarred as her father's. She'd never really noticed how beaten his hands were; they had been nothing but gentle and nimble in her life. Strong, capable hands that were always there. But now, as she looked at them, she saw for the first time the scars, white lines that told a story of battle and potions accidents. She shuddered to think that these scars were those that were too severe to be completely erased by medical potions.

"Elizabeth?" Severus said, louder, breaking off her thoughts. "What is going on in that head of yours?"

"Nothing," Elizabeth shook her head. "Just wondering what would happen if we all just stayed here forever."

"Innocent people would die, and we would eventually be found," Severus said calmly.

They sat in silence, the weight of that fact hanging over them until Ron bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen holding a radio. "Listen!" He plunked the box onto the table.

"…apologize for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which was due to a number of house calls in our area by those charming Death Eaters," a voice came out of the tiny speaker.

Elizabeth looked at Ron. "That's Lee Jordan!"

"I know!" beamed Ron. "It's EvansWatch!"

"What?" Severus looked at Ron, who grinned even bigger.

"EvansWatch. A radio show supporting Elizabeth. I was looking for Muggle news, but I found this."

"…now found ourselves another secure location," Lee was saying, "and I'm pleased to tell you that two of our regular contributors have joined me here this evening."

"Evening, River," said a voice Elizabeth recognized, but couldn't place.

"'River', that's Lee," Ron explained. "They've all got code names."

"But before we hear from Royal and Castor," Lee went on, "let's take a moment to report those deaths that the _Wizarding Wireless Network News and Daily Prophet_ didn't think important enough to mention. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell."

"Oh God," Elizabeth put her hand over her mouth. "Tonks!"

"Shh," Ron waved her silent.

"It is believed that Muggle-born Dean Thomas was traveling with them and may have escaped. If Dean is listening, or if anyone has any knowledge of his whereabouts, his family is desperate for news."

"And now we turn to regular contributor Royal, for an update on how the new Wizarding order is affecting the Muggle world."

"Thanks, River," said another voice, this time one that Elizabeth recognized immediately.

"Kingsley!"

"Hush," Severus said, waving as impatiently as Ron had.

"And now, over to Castor for an update on those friends of Elizabeth Evans who are suffering for their allegiance."

"Thank you," came the first voice again, and Elizabeth's brain clicked.

"George!" She turned and ran to the bathroom where Fred was shaving. She grabbed his free arm and dragged him back with her.

"Betsy, I've about cut my—

"Shh!" the other three said in unison.

"Well, as regular listeners will know, several of the more outspoken supporters of Elizabeth Evans have now been imprisoned, including Xenophilius Lovegood, erstwhile editor of _The Quibbler_," said George.

"What the hell is he doing?" Fred hissed through his teeth.

"We have also heard within the last few hours that Rubeus Hagrid, well-known gamekeeper at Hogwarts has narrowly escaped arrest within the grounds of Hogwarts, where he is rumored to have hosted a 'Support Elizabeth Evans' party in his house. However, Hagrid was not taken into custody, and is, we believe, on the run."

"Dad?" Elizabeth took Fred's hand.

"He's alright," Snape said softly. "He's lucky he had that daft brother of his."

"While we are certainly applaud Hagrid's spirit," George went on, "we would urge Elizabeth's supporters against following his lead. 'Support Elizabeth Evans' parties are unwise in the present climate. However," his voice adopted a more jovial tone, "we do have a comment on the rumors about the Chief Death Eater."

"We'd like everyone to remember to stay calm," Kingsley said. "The rumors are worse than the man himself lately."

"Agreed," George said. "Things are bad enough without inventing stuff as well. For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill with a single glance from his eyes. That's a basilisk, listeners. One simple test: Check whether the thing that's glaring at you has got legs. If it has, it's safe to look into its eyes. If you want to spread a rumor, spread this one: Elizabeth Evan's Patronus is a basilisk, and it will freeze you where you stand."

Elizabeth laughed, and then, seeing Fred was not only not amused, but seemed agitated, took the razor from his hand and put it on the table.

"And the rumors that he keeps being sighted abroad?" asked Lee.

"Well, who wouldn't want a nice little holiday after all the hard work he's been putting in?" asked George. "Point is, people, don't get lulled into a false sense of security, thinking he's out of the country. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but the fact remains he can move faster than my mum that day my brother and I set off fireworks in the loo. I never thought I'd hear myself say it, but safety first!"

"Thank you very much for those wise words, Castor," said Lee. "Listeners, that brings us to the end of another Evans Watch. We don't know when it will be possible to broadcast again, but you can be sure we shall be back. Keep twiddling those dials: The next password will be 'Mad-Eye." Keep each other safe: Keep faith. Good night."

"Good, eh?" said Ron happily. "Heard the tail end last time, and I've been trying the password."

"Brilliant," Elizabeth said.

"It's suicide," Fred said, his voice sounding strangled. "If they were found—

"But they keep on the move, don't they?" Ron said. "Like us."

"But did you hear George?" asked Elizabeth excitedly. "He's abroad! He's still looking for the Wand."

Fred's face was stony, his lips pressed hard together. He looked at Severus, but didn't respond to Elizabeth's excitement.

"Fred?" Elizabeth pivoted so she was standing in front of him, looking up to meet his eyes over the inches that separated their heights. "What?"

Fred just shook his head and turned toward the hall. "Have to finish shaving," he muttered.

Elizabeth sighed, looking at Ron, who shrugged. "Don't ask me. But he looks like Mum when someone didn't pick up their socks."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but grabbed the razor and went down the hall, tapping softly on the bathroom door. "Fred?"

"You can come in," his voice came through the door and she heard the lock click open.

"Hey," she said, closing the door behind her and standing behind him as he stood in front of the sink, his face relathered. "You left this," she held out the razor.

He took it without comment, and she sighed. "What's wrong, love?"

Fred shook his head, running the razor down the side of his face. "There are two people in the world that I can't handle losing," he said. "There are other people I'd be upset, of course, but there are two people that if they were gone, I might be better off dead."

"Fred," Elizabeth put her arms around him, laying her cheek between his shoulder blades.

"No," he shook his head. "It's not something we have to talk about or work through. It's just a fact. I don't know if I could live without you. Or him," he nodded toward the kitchen, and Elizabeth immediately understood. She looked at his razor hand and saw that it was shaking.

"Here," she said, gently turning him and taking the razor from his hand. "You'll cut yourself."

"I will not," Fred said indignantly, but stood still while she took over.

"I hate to think what You Know Who would do if he captured George," Elizabeth said conversationally. "Would send him back, I'd imagine, after all the bad jokes."

"Pranking You Know Who," Fred said, a smile twitching at his lips. "It's exactly what George would do."

Elizabeth finished his face, and put the razor down before kissing his smooth cheek. "There. Because it won't do to have stubble during a war."

"You don't like it," Fred said, putting his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against him. "And I aim to please."

"It's scratchy," Elizabeth agreed, laughing as he sandwiched her between the wall and his chest. "Makes it hard to do this," she kissed his face again, and then let her lips wander to his mouth.

"Hmm," Fred groaned a little as he hitched her up higher on the wall so that her feet were off the floor. "I wouldn't want to stop you from doing that."

Elizabeth answered with another kiss, wrapping her legs around his hips.

"Everything alright in there?" Hermione's voice came through the door as she knocked. "We're talking about eating."

Fred found his voice first. "Yeah," he called. "I think we're hungry." He looked at Elizabeth with a grin.

"Yeah," she said, clearing her throat. "We're coming."


	14. Liability

Fred woke to an empty bed the next morning. He rolled over into the space usually occupied by Elizabeth, and piece of parchment hit him in the face, its corner nearly taking out his eye.

_Fred,_

_Gone on an errand. I'll be back as soon as I can._

_Betsy_

"An errand," he muttered to himself, sitting up and rubbing a hand over his face. "What the hell is she playing at?"

He made his way downstairs to find Ron and Hermione sitting at the table.

"Toast?" Ron offered.

"Neither of you went with her?"

"Went where?" Hermione asked, looking up from the copy of the _Daily Prophet_ she'd had delivered to the forest behind the house.

"I don't know," Fred said, panic setting in. He held up Elizabeth's note. "I thought she'd at least taken one of you."

"We didn't know she'd left," Hermione said nervously. "Where do you think she went?"

*S*S*

Ollivander was standing behind the counter in his shop when Elizabeth, her cloak drawn up over her face, stepped inside.

"Mr. Ollivander," she said, looking about the shop to assure that they were alone, "I'm sorry to disturb you."

The wand maker stepped forward, taking the tip of her drawn wand and running his fingers along it. "10 ¼ inch willow. Swishy. Good for Charms work. Originally, this wand chose Lily Evans, but it seems to have changed allegiance to her daughter."

He reached one hand behind Elizabeth and threw the lock. "Quickly," he said, ushering her into the back room.

"George Weasley says you've refused to go into hiding," Elizabeth said cautiously.

"You've put yourself at great personal risk to come here today, Miss Evans," Ollivander said. "Surely you haven't come to ensure an old man's safety. What did you come here to discover?"

Elizabeth took off her hood and looked at the old wizard. "There are legends," she began. "Legends about a wand, or wands, that have been passed from hand to hand by murder."

Ollivander turned pale. "Only one wand, I think."

"And You Know Who is interested in it, isn't he?" asked Elizabeth.

"I would imagine…" Ollivander swallowed. "There have been some… inquiries."

"He wants you to tell him how to overcome the connection between our wands," Elizabeth said.

"He's sent his minions," Ollivander allowed. "Their methods are… persuasive."

"They tortured you," Elizabeth nodded. "Malfoy?"

Ollivander shook his head. "Lestrange."

"What did you tell him?"

"I had no choice, you must understand! I had to tell him what I knew, what I guessed!"

"I understand," Elizabeth soothed. "You told him about the twin cores? You said he just had to borrow another wizard's wand?"

Ollivander looked horrified. He nodded slowly.

"So he's looking for a new wand. One that is better than simply borrowed." Elizabeth returned to the original subject. "The other wand, the wand that changes hands by murder. You-Know-Who wanted to know about it."

"Yes," whispered Ollivander. "He wanted to know everything I could tell him about the wand variously known as the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny, or the Elder Wand." Ollivander paused. "The Dark Lord had always been happy with the wand I made him, yew and phoenix feather, thirteen-and-a-half inches, until he discovered the connection of the twin cores. Now he seeks another, more powerful wand, as the only way to conquer yours."

"But my wand is broken beyond repair," Elizabeth said. "He no longer needs it—

"The Dark Lord no longer seeks the Elder Wand only for your destruction, Miss Evans. He is determined to possess it because he believes it will make him truly invulnerable."

"And will it?"

"The owner of the Elder wand must always fear attack," said Ollivander, "but the idea of the Dark Lord in possession of the Deathstick is, I must admit… formidable."

"Mr. Ollivander," Elizabeth said, "you told You-Know-Who that Gregorovitch had the Elder Wand, didn't you?"

Ollivander turned paler. "But how…"

"Never mind how I know it. You told You-Know-Who that Gregorovitch had the wand?"

"It was a rumor," defended Ollivander. "A rumor, years and years ago, long before you were born!"

"Mr. Ollivander, what do you know about the Deathly Hallows?"

"The what?"

"The Deathly Hallows."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Is this still something to do with wands?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "Thank you. I've taken up too much of your time already." She pulled her hood up again. "He'll come again," she said. "You really must go away."

"I've given him what he wanted to know," Ollivander said sadly.

"And when he takes over the Wizarding world?" Elizabeth asked. "When he comes to you because he's murdered the other well-known wand maker and enlists you to make wands for his army? When you become an employee of Voldemort—

The word was hardly out of her mouth when she remembered. The Taboo. There were suddenly raised voices outside the shop.

"Come out of there with your hands up!" came a rasping voice. "We know you're in there! You've got half a dozen wands pointing at you and we don't care who we curse!"

*S*S*

"Maybe it's nothing," Ron said hopefully.

"She didn't go out for milk and biscuits," Tonks said nervously, looking out the window. "How long has it been?"

"An hour since I found the note," Fred said. "Could have been longer."

"Do you think we should call Professor Snape?" Hermione frowned. "Maybe she went to Hogwarts?"

*S*S*

She was not at Hogwarts.

"We've captured Elizabeth Evans!" the Snatcher that had Elizabeth by the arm roared triumphantly at the gates of Malfoy Manor.

The gates before them swung open and the group of Snatchers shunted her through the gates and up the drive. She stumbled and was dragged to her feet by the man the others were calling Scabior.

"What is this?" said a woman's cold voice.

"We're here to see the Dark Lord," Scabior snapped.

"Who are you?"

"It hardly matters. We've caught Elizabeth Evans." Scabior used his other hand to grab her by the neck and pull her up to face the woman, her cloak hood falling back.

Narcissa Malfoy stood, scrutinizing her face. Scabior thrust the wand, her mother's wand he'd taken from her, at the older witch.

"Bring them in," she said, raising her eyebrows.

Elizabeth found herself being shoved and kicked up broad stone steps into a hallway lined with portraits.

"Follow me," said Narcissa, leading the way across the hall. "Ah, Bella."

Bellatrix Lestrange walked slowly around the prisoner, and poked her viciously with her wand. "You look very much like your father," she sneered, then wrinkled her nose like she'd smelled something foul. "You stink of Mudblood as well."

"Now, Bella," Narcissa said airily. "We must inform the Dark Lord immediately."

"Of course, Cissy," Bellatrix's mouth stretched into a cruel smile. "Allow me."

She dragged back her left sleeve: Elizabeth saw the Dark Mark burned into the flesh of her arm, and knew that Bellatrix was about to touch it, to summon her beloved master.

"Shouldn't you let the people who did all the work have the honors?" Elizabeth spat trying to distract the crazy-eyed woman.

"The honor is mine," Bellatrix screeched, turning her wand on Elizabeth. "And the Dark Lord merely wants you alive, Evans. He never said anything about unharmed. _Crucio!_"

Elizabeth screamed as the spell hit her in the chest, igniting every nerve in her body.

"Think about your attitude," Bellatrix cackled, "while I call the Dark Lord!"

She pushed back her sleeve again and touched her forefinger to the Dark Mark.

At once, Elizabeth's scar felt as though it had split open again. She felt Voldemort's displeasure at being recalled from his mission to find what he wanted.

Bellatrix raised her wand and hit Elizabeth again, watching her writhe in pain while Snatchers held each of her arms.

Suddenly, there was a pop, and a tiny elf appeared.

"Dobby!" Narcissa screeched.

"You must not hurt Elizabeth Evans," Dobby squeaked.

"Kill him, Cissy!" shrieked Bellatrix, but there was another loud crack, and Narcissa's wand flew into the air and landed on the other side of the room.

Elizabeth's scar was blinding her with pain. Dimly she knew that she had moments, seconds before Voldemort was with them.

There was a groaning overhead and the heavy glass chandelier broke free, falling and pinning Narcissa and Bellatrix to the ground. The Snatchers released Elizabeth in surprise and she bent, scooping up Bellatrix's wand and pointing it at her captors.

"_Stupefy!"_ she cast twice, hitting both men square in the chest. She reached into Scabior's pocket and pulled out her mother's wand. She spun to the side and saw a dark figure coming through the door.

"_Expelliarmus_!" She shouted, and the man's wand flew through the air and into her hand. She looked down at it, then up at the figure. "Dad?"

"How many times have I told you to stop disarming people in a real battle?" Severus snapped, striding across the floor and holding out his hand for his wand. "Narcissa. Bellatrix," he greeted the unconscious women on the floor.

"You should be glad I didn't kill you," Elizabeth said, clenching her teeth against the pain. "What are you doing here?"

"No time," Severus shook his head. "He's on his way." He turned to the elf. "Dobby, I need you to get us out of here. We can't get outside the antiapparation wards in time. I'll guide the apparation."

"Yes, sir, Professor Snape, sir," Dobby said, grasping each of them in one hand and popping them away.

They were in the squeezing feeling of Apparation when Elizabeth's head exploded. Voldemort's scream of rage burst from her lungs, his anger coursing through her.

When they landed outside Headquarters, she was still screaming, the inhuman length of it depriving her body of oxygen. Unable to gasp for breath, she fell, unconscious to the ground.

*S*S*

"I know I'm not supposed to hit women," Fred growled to Ron. "But she certainly tries my gentlemanly control."

"What gentlemanly control?" Ron smirked.

"Shut up, both of you," Hermione said, handing Severus a blanket. "How did she end up at Malfoy Manor?"

"Phineas Black said he saw Snatchers bring her in from his Malfoy Manor portrait," Severus said. "I'd like to say that I saved her by getting there so quickly, but she and Dobby had everyone in the room incapacitated by the time I got there."

"Dobby would have gotten her out, Professor Headmaster Snape, sir." Dobby said from where he was perched on the sofa arm.

"I'm sure you would have, Dobby. My thanks for your service," Severus nodded to the little elf.

"She's going to be alright, though?" Fred asked for the third time.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley," Severus sighed. "And when she is, we can decide which one of us gets to kill her first." He frowned and stood. "It might be you, because I have to go back to Hogwarts. I have no legitimate reason to be absent, and I'm sure that there will be repercussions for this." He brushed his hand over Elizabeth's forehead. "She's breathing now. Watch her. Send word when she wakes." He looked at the house elf. "Dobby, can you stay here for awhile? The message might be easiest sent with you."

"Of course, Headmaster, sir."

Severus nodded and went out the back door, pausing for a moment to put his hand on Fred's shoulder.

"Hermione, send your Patronus to let Remus and Tonks know she's back," Fred said tiredly. "I'm going to take her upstairs."

"Should you move her?" Ron asked uneasily. "We don't know what they did to her."

"This sofa is terrible," Fred shook his head and bent to lift her into his arms. "I'm going to stay with her," he told the rest. "I'll let you know if there's any change."

He carried her up the stairs and into their bedroom. The bed was unmade. She always made it, and he'd been in no mood for domestic activities when he'd found the note.

He laid her on the bed, and was pulling the sheet over her when her eyelids fluttered. "Fred?"

"You'd better stay asleep," he grumbled, sitting on the edge of the mattress and crossing his arms.

"He's really angry," Elizabeth said, sitting up slowly.

"That makes two of us," Fred scowled.

Elizabeth put her hand on her chest. "It was like he was controlling my breath."

Fred put a hand on her back. "Is it alright now?"

Elizabeth nodded. "He was upset he lost me."

"I would be too," Fred said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you want to explain to me why you decided to go on a solo mission today without telling anyone?"

"I left a note," Elizabeth said weakly. "And if I'd told you, you'd have tried to come with me."

"How dare I want to accompany my partner on a dangerous mission?" Fred said sarcastically.

"Fred," Elizabeth sighed. "I went to see Ollivander."

"You went to Diagon Alley?" Fred's expression darkened.

"He's the only one who could tell us about the Elder Wand and—" she was startled when Fred stood and went toward the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going downstairs to send a message to your father that you're awake, get a headache potion because I can tell that you're lying about being in pain, and I'm going to sit down there for a little while so that I don't strangle you."

"Fred—

Fred held up a hand. "Elizabeth, honestly, you're going to want to give me a minute."

He went down the stairs. "Dobby, please go and tell Professor Snape that his daughter is awake," he said calmly, going to the cabinet where Hermione stored a reserve of medical potions.

Ron and Hermione hurried into the other room, Ron looking back over his shoulder. He's never seen his brother's face so stormy.

Fred pulled out a headache potion and set it on the counter. Then he poured himself a drink. He leaned, elbows on the countertop, trying get himself together. He knew, logically, that Elizabeth hadn't gone off that morning to make him crazy. She'd left a note. They were living in dangerous times. But he couldn't handle it. Couldn't handle that she was seconds away from death every minute, and she kept dancing closer.

It was too painful. It would be less painful, easier, if he would just…

His mind flashed to his parents, who fought the first war side by side. Bill and Lupin and George who were doing it now.

And then his mind flitted to Snape, who had sent his love away from him to save her.

But he couldn't send her away. Even if he wanted to. But he could go. He could stop being a liability. Stop being the one who distracted her.

He could see it, so clearly in his mind. The moment she would turn to defend him and get hit herself. He felt a lurching feeling in his stomach and then, without giving it another thought, he pointed his wand at the vial, sending the potion upstairs before he left the house and disappeared with a _crack_.

*S*S*

_Fred,_

_I know you aren't dead, because my Patronus hasn't come back and my letters have been delivered. Where are you?_

_Betsy_

*S*S*

_Fred,_

_I know you're angry, but this is childish. At least give me the courtesy of a response._

_Betsy_

*S*S*

_Fredrick Weasley,_

_If you don't answer this letter, I am selling your ring and marrying Charlie. And I'm sending a letter to your mother._

_Betsy_

*S*S*

Bill Weasley opened the window of Shell Cottage to let in the owl that pecked at the pane. He looked at the letter and sighed. "Fred," he called, going into the living room where his brother had been sitting, nearly 24 hours a day since he'd arrived.

"Your mail," Bill said dryly, tossing the letter in the younger wizard's lap.

"Thanks," Fred muttered.

"Listen, little brother," Bill said, sitting on the coffee table in front of Fred's chair. "I love you. But I love her too, and you're acting like an arse. I've only let you stay this long because I can't decide whether to beat the hell out of you or have you committed to St. Mungo's."

"I'm protecting her," Fred said quietly.

"You're going to protect her right out of your life," Bill warned. "Ron says that she's not sleeping. Just walks the house."

"You've talked to Ron?"

"He wrote," Bill said, "looking for you."

"You ratted me out."

"First of all," Bill rolled his eyes, "we are not 12, and so I didn't 'rat you out'. He doesn't know you're here. I did that more for my own protection, because if you don't come to your senses soon, Severus Snape is liable to find you here and raze the place." He crossed his arms over his chest. "You can see how that would concern me, since I have a wife whom, I, you know, didn't abandon, and she needs a roof over her very pretty head."

Fred's head dropped into his hands. "He'd understand," he muttered.

"Really?" Bill asked incredulously. "Severus Snape, the most terrifying man alive, would understand that you broke his daughter's heart?" He snatched the most recent letter and opened it. "Frederick Gideon Weasley," he read. "Man, she is laying out the full name right now. Too bad she isn't going to be the mother of your children." He kept reading, "You think you're smart, hiding out from us like this. Hiding out from me. You think that if you wait me out for long enough, I'll get tired and let you go."

Bill grinned. "She really is smart, you know."

Fred scowled at the floor, and Bill continued reading.

"Let me tell you something, you redheaded idiot. I love you. So you can forget me giving up on you. I will wait out your addle-minded belief that you're protecting me (because I'm sure that's what this nonsense is)." Bill smiled again. "She knows you."

"Stop reading."

"No," Bill said simply, starting again. "I can only assume that you will not answer this letter, from wherever you are, but you can count on another one to arrive soon. Don't be surprised if Hedwig pecks your head repeatedly, I'm going to promise her extra treats for doing so (although I could probably just tell her what an arse you're being)."

"Stop," Fred begged again.

"So get up and move away from me then," Bill challenged. "There's just a bit more." He shook out the parchment with a flourish. "George is worried about you. If you won't answer me, at least let him know you're alright. Love, Betsy. P.S. Next time you want to make a grand exit, you shouldn't make sure I get my pain potion before you go. It ruins the gesture."

Bill laughed outright at that. "What did you do? Dose her and leave?"

"I was upset," Fred said softly. "But she was in pain."

"Well, you're a royal screw-up," Bill said matter-of-factly. "And I'm kicking you out."

"What?" Fred looked up.

"You heard me. You've had enough tantrum time. You don't have to go back to her, but you can't stay here. We may be the biggest blood-traitor family there is, but we don't betray each other, and Elizabeth is my sister just as much as she will be the day you finally marry her." He stood and patted his brother on the shoulder. "Now go away. I'd offer you something to eat, but you'd hardly eaten since you got here."

Fred stood, walked out into the back garden, and stood, unsure of what to do next.


	15. He Knows

"You're going to do what?" Ron looked at Elizabeth, slack-jawed.

"If you were You-Know-Who, where would you store a piece of yourself?" Elizabeth answered.

"Apparently all over the place," Ron said. "This is a hell of a risk—

"Ron," Elizabeth said quietly. "I'm in his head. It makes sense to me."

"It makes sense to break into Gringotts and hope that the Dark Lord has stored a piece of his soul in the Lestranges' vault?"

"We don't have to break in. That's the point. According to Wizarding law, I own everything in that vault. I could take it back right now. I am the heir of the Head of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black."

"So…" Hermione said, "You're just going to walk in?"

"Well, I'll wear a cloak," Elizabeth shrugged. "You heard Bill a year ago. The Goblins don't care about Wizard wars."

"They probably care about You-Know-Who finding out they helped you and killing them," Ron said.

"We have to get in there," Elizabeth insisted. "I'll just have to use the Imperius curse to make sure they don't cause a problem."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Elizabeth! That's an unforgivable!"

"It's unforgivable for us to fail at destroying all the Horcruxes," Elizabeth said firmly.

"Elizabeth…" Ron said carefully. "Are you sure that this isn't… I mean, you've thought this through, you aren't just… being reckless… because…"

Elizabeth shook her head. "This has nothing to do with your brother, Ron."

"Okay," Ron nodded, clearly not believing her.

"We go this afternoon," Elizabeth said. "It's Saturday; it will be busy enough that we won't draw attention."

"More people to see us," Hermione protested.

"Loud enough not to be overheard," Elizabeth said. "Did we learn nothing from the Three Broomsticks debacle of Fifth year? You two need to use the Polyjuice potion," She went on. "You might not be recognized, but it will be easier if you don't have to show your face. Three people in face-covering cloaks are suspicious."

"This whole plan is suspicious," Ron muttered.

*S*S*

Elizabeth clung to the neck of the Gringott's dragon. Goblins and wizards shrieked and ran for cover while the dragon took off toward the entrance.

"This is _not_ going well," Ron growled, one hand clutching the dragon's scales and one holding tight to Hermione's robe.

"We got the Cup, didn't we?" Elizabeth managed to gasp.

"We're going to die now," Hermione said frantically. "Dragons aren't really for riding."

"Yeah, we know," Elizabeth snapped, pulling at the dragon's neck like she could use it to steer. She looked at Ron. "How much weight can a broom support?"

"Not nearly enough for all three of us," Ron said, understanding immediately. "But if we used a lightening charm—"

"What the hell are you three doing?"

Elizabeth spun toward the voice and saw Fred, apparently sitting in mid-air.

"Since when do you fly?" Ron asked.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Invisibility booster, little brother. The one you forgot to use the time you stole the car. Here," he opened the invisible door and held out his hand. "I'm going to go lower, and you guys jump in. One at a time."

Ron went first, then Hermione. They settled in the backseat as Fred held his hand out to Elizabeth.

She was overcome with fear. _You've stared down the Dark Lord, _she berated herself. _Let go of the damn dragon._

But she couldn't. The Girl Who Lived was going to die from falling off a dragon.

"Betsy," Fred's voice came from below. "Let's go."

Elizabeth shook her head, clutching the dragon's scales.

"_Elizabeth_," Fred's voice was more urgent now. "We're flying at trees."

Elizabeth tried to relax her hold, but then she looked down. Miles and miles separated them from ground.

"Ron, Come up here and steer," Fred said, and the next thing she knew, he was sitting behind her, one arm around her waist. "Trust me," he said gently. "Let go."

Elizabeth gritted her teeth and turned carefully to look at him. "Trust you?" she glared at him.

His face fell. "I'm sorry, Betsy."

"You should be," Elizabeth seethed. "Asking me to trust you after you just left."

"I am," Fred nodded. "You can yell at me all you want, but can we do it on the ground?"

"Get back in the car," Elizabeth said quietly.

"Come on—

"Get back in the car. Ron, help him," Elizabeth reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a black box. Flipping it open, she looked inside. "_Expando_."

Her Firebolt sprang out of the box, full size.

Fred, suddenly understanding, crawled back into the car, taking his place behind the wheel again. Elizabeth threw her leg over the broom and let go of the dragon, letting the broom support her. She let the beast move on, flying high herself until she could come closer to the car in safety.

"Let's go home," she said, hovering beside the car door.

"Get in," Fred said.

"I'm just going to fly," Elizabeth said. "Let's get down to somewhere we can Apparate." She took off toward the banks of the water they'd been flying over.

She'd barely touched down when pain cleaved Elizabeth's head like a sword stroke. She was standing in a dimly lit room, and a semicircle of wizards faced her, and on the floor at her feet knelt a small, quaking figure.

"What did you say to me?" Her voice was high and cold, but fury and fear burned inside Voldemort's breast. The one thing he had dreaded, but it could not be true, but he could not see how…

The goblin was trembling, unable to meet the red eyes high above his.

"Say it again!" murmured Voldemort. "Say it again!"

"M-my Lord," stammered the goblin, eyes wide with terror, "we tried to stop them, but she… she had rights—

"What rights?" Voldemorts hissed. "The only rights in this world are given by me."

"Yes, My Lord," The goblin said again.

"And they took?" Voldemort's voice was rising.

"A… a small golden cup, My Lord…"

The scream of rage, of denial left Elizabeth's body as if it were a stranger's: Voldemort was crazed, frenzied, it could not be true, it was impossible, nobody had ever known: How was it possible that the girl could have discovered his secret.

The Elder Wand slashed through the air and green light erupted through the room; the kneeling goblin rolled over, dead; the watching wizards scattered before him, terrified. His wand fell again and again, and those who were left were slain, all of them, for bringing him this news, for hearing about the golden cup—

Alone amongst the dead, Voldemort's body heaved with heavy breath. The diary was destroyed and the cup was stolen: What if, what if, the girl knew about the others. Was Dumbledore at the root of this? Dumbledore, dead on his orders; Dumbledore, whose wand was his now… if he'd not told the girl what he'd suspected, perhaps he'd told Snape, the traitor.

Surely if the whelp had destroyed any of his Horcruxes, he, Lord Voldemort, would have known, would have felt it? He, the greatest wizard of them all. Surely they must be safe.

But he must know, he must be sure… He paced the room, kicking aside the goblin's corpse. Could the girl have known that he had hidden the ring in the Gaunt shack? No one knew he was related to the Gaunts. The idea of the locket being stolen was absurd. A teenager couldn't have infiltrated his protections.

As for the school: He alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of the place…

And there was still Nagini, who must remain close now, no longer sent to do his bidding, under his protection…

But to be sure, to be utterly sure, he must return to each of his hiding places, he must redouble protection around each of his Horcruxes.

Which should be visit first, which was in the most danger? The Gaunt shack, of course, and then he must return to Hogwarts. He could take up residence there once again, Snape had served his purpose. His… interference would be unwelcome when it came time to finish off Elizabeth Evans.

Elizabeth pulled herself back to present. She was lying on the grass, with Fred kneeling beside her. "He knows," she said, sitting up and looking around.

"What did you see?" Fred asked.

"He knows," Elizabeth repeated. "He's scared that we found the cup. He's going to check on the others. The last one is at Hogwarts. We have to go."

"Why would he end the charade right now?" Hermione asked, helping Elizabeth to her feet.

"He's got the Elder Wand," Elizabeth said. "He found it."

"Where?"

Elizabeth grimaced. "Dumbledore's tomb. He was thinking about how it was Dumbledore's, and he was buried with his wand. That's the only explanation."

"How are we going to get into Hogwarts?" Ron said. "Ginny says that security has been ratcheted up there."

"We'll go to Hogsmeade tonight," Elizabeth said. "We'll figure it out from there."

*S*S*

The Dementors were coming quickly, summoned by the Death Eaters that were closing in. Elizabeth raised her wand. She would not, could not, suffer the Dementor's Kiss, whatever happened afterward. If was of her father that she thought as she whispered, "Expecto Patronum!" She had to get to school. She had to save him.

The silver Basilisk burst from her wand and charged: The dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from somewhere out of sight.

"It's her, down there, down there, I saw her Patronus, it was a snake!"

Elizabeth felt herself being summoned all of a sudden, the group of them being yanked around the side of a bar, before being pulled into an open doorway.

"Up the stairs," a voice hissed. "Quickly, girl, take your friends with you."

Elizabeth didn't stop to think, she just ran, the others hot on her heels. The barman followed them after bolting the door.

"You bloody fools," he said gruffly, looking from one to the other of them. "What were you thinking, coming here?"

"Thank you," Elizabeth said. "You saved our lives."

"Wouldn't have been the first time," the man muttered, lighting lamps with prods of his wand.

"You're Aberforth," said Elizabeth to the man's back.

He neither confirmed nor denied it, but bent to light the fire.

"Who's Aberforth?" Fred whispered to Elizabeth.

"Aberforth Dumbledore," the barman said. "We've got to get you out of here at daybreak. You made a mistake, coming at night, Evans. The Caterwauling Charm's set at night." He looked at her disapprovingly. "Get out of Hogsmeade, up into the mountains, and you'll be able to Disapparate there. Might see Hagrid. He's been hiding in a cave up there with Grawp ever since they tried to arrest him."

"We're not leaving," said Elizabeth. "We need to get into Hogwarts."

"Don't be stupid, girl," Aberforth snorted. "What you need to do is get as far from here as you can."

"There isn't much time," Elizabeth protested. "You Know Who is coming and we've got to get in there. Professor Dumbledore gave us a job—

"An easy one, I'd imagine?" Aberforth scoffed. "Something an under-qualified witch would be able to do without stretching herself?"

"Well… no, but we were close—

"Close, where you? Don't you think it's odd that you call him 'Professor'?" Aberforth asked. "That's a pretty tight grandfatherly relationship you had there."

"We weren't close like that."

"He wasn't close with your dad like that either," Aberforth said. "How many times has Snape almost been killed for one of Albus' ideas? Get out while you can, Evans. Get out of the country if you can."

"You're fighting too," Elizabeth accused. "You're in the Order of the Phoenix—

"I was," Aberforth interrupted. "The Order of the Pheonix is finished. You-Know-Who's won. It's over, and anyone who's pretending different is kidding themselves. It'll never be safe for you here, Evans, he wants you too badly. Go abroad, go into hiding, save yourself. Take these three with you. Start over in the States."

"I can't leave," Elizabeth protested again. "I've got a job—"

"Give it to someone else!"

"I can't. It's got to be me, Dumbledore explained it all—

"Oh, did he now? And did he tell you everything, was he honest with you?"

Elizabeth wanted to say "Yes," but somehow the simple word would not rise to her lips. Aberforth seemed to know what she was thinking.

"I knew my brother, Evans. He learned secrecy at our mother's knee. Secrets and lies, that's how we grew up, and Albus… he was a natural."

"It doesn't matter," Elizabeth said. "Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who and he passed the knowledge on to me. I'm going to keep going until I succeed, or I die. Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years." She glared at the wizard, daring him to argue. "We need to get into Hogwarts," she repeated. "If you can't help us, we'll wait until daybreak, leave you in peace, and try to find a way in ourselves. If you _can_ help us, now would be a great time to mention it."

Fred grabbed her hand.

Aberforth seemed to think for a moment. "Fine." He turned to a portrait of a young girl that Elizabeth realized must be Ariana.

"You know what to do," he said.

She smiled, turned, and walked away, not as people in portraits usually did, out of the sides of their frames, but along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her. They watched her slight figure retreating until she was finally swallowed by the darkness.

"Er…what?" began Ron.

"There's only one way in now," said Aberforth. "You must know they've got the old secret passageways covered at both ends, Dementors all around the boundary walls, regular patrols inside the school from what my sources tell me. The place has never been so heavily guarded."

"But what?" said Hermione, frowning at Ariana's picture.

A tiny white dot had reappeared at the end of the painted tunnel, and now Ariana was walking back toward them, growing bigger and bigger as she came. But there was somebody else with her now, someone taller than she was, who was walking more slowly.

Then the whole portrait swung forward on the wall and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed. Severus Snape stepped out and raised an eyebrow, "Gringotts, Elizabeth Rose? Really? My daughter is a bank robber."

*S*S*

"How long's this been here?" Ron asked as they followed Severus down the tunnel. "It isn't on the Marauder's Map, is it, Fred? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school?"

"I sealed all of those before the start of the school year," Severus said. "There's no chance of getting through any of them now. The official story, of course, is that I'm trying to protect my students from Muggle-borns. However, the curses over the entrances serve just as well to ward off Death Eaters." He frowned. "The ones we've got already in the school are quite enough." He looked at Elizabeth. "Is it true? Gringott's? The dragon? I have Terry Boot in the Hospital wing being patched up after Carrow beat him for speaking about it at dinner."

"Yeah, it's true," Elizabeth said.

Severus shook his head. "I wish the students would stop baiting the Carrows. I could have taken him into my office and given him fake bruises."

"They're really beating the students?"

"Sounds right up Snape's alley," Ron joked, then froze, as if realizing where he was and who he was with.

Severus fixed him with a cold glare. "As much as you may believe it, Mr. Weasley, I have never wanted to physically harm a student, aside from sore arms from scrubbing cauldrons."

"Yes, sir, I'm sorry," Ron shook his head.

"Elizabeth!" Neville Longbottom came bounding down the tunnel. "Professor Snape, There's a portrait in your office that wants you."

"Neville," Elizabeth looked at him. "What's happened to you?" The wizard had cuts and bruises all over his face and neck in a way that made Elizabeth believe that the trend was probably continued all over his body.

"Carrow," Neville said.

"Is that a new one?" Severus asked quietly, putting his hand on the side of Neville's face near a particularly deep gash in his cheek.

"Yes, sir. Alecto wanted me to Crucio a first year who has a Muggle mother. She got me for asking her how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got."

"Merlin, boy," Severus said, pointing his wand at the cut and muttering a charm. "There's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."

"Doesn't matter," Neville shrugged. "They don't want to spill too much pure blood."

"Dad, you didn't heal it," Elizabeth said, pointing to the gash.

"I can't," Severus shook his head. "They'll wonder who was doing it. It doesn't hurt anymore though, right, Mr. Longbottom?"

"It's fine, sir. Like I said, there's not many purebloods left. We lost Luna at Christmas and Ginny never came back after Easter—

"She didn't?" Fred looked at him with alarm.

"She's alright," Severus assured him. "Your parents have taken her into hiding."

"They've been going after family members, so it's probably better," Neville said. "They went after Gran."

"They what?" Hermione said.

Neville grinned. "Thing was, they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, they probably thought they didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway, Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run." His voice was heavy with pride.

"Enough reminiscence," Snape said. "We're here."

Elizabeth stepped through the portrait to find a room filled with perhaps twenty people.

"Elizabeth!"

"Evans!"

"Where are we?" Elizabeth asked.

"The Room of Requirement, of course," Neville said. "Surpassed itself, hasn't it? The Carrows were chasing me, and I knew I had just one chance for a hideout: I managed to get through the door and this is what I found! Well, it wasn't exactly like this when I arrived, and it was a load smaller, there was only one hammock and just Gryffindor hangings. But it's expanded as more and more of the D.A. have arrived."

"Most of those you see here are in full-time hiding," Severus said. "Neville survives on the outside because I've told the Carrows that he is on the Dark Lord's personal kill list."

"Headmaster, the portrait," Neville reminded him.

"Dad, I need to go with you. We have to talk about something."

Severus frowned, but nodded. "Put on your Cloak," he said, and they went out into the corridor.

They walked silently and quickly up the stairs and to Severus' office, where he bolted the door and cast several charms around the doors and windows before gesturing to her to take off her Cloak.

"Dad, he's coming—

"Hold on," Severus said, stepping toward her and wrapping his arms around her tightly. "Okay, tell me."

"He knows I know about the Horcruxes. He's coming here to check on the one that's hidden here." She looked at him. "It's the last one object, Dad. He doesn't know I have the others, but he will by the time I get here. You should go into the Room and stay there."

"You've found another?" Severus looked at her, ignoring her order. "Was that what you were looking for at Gringott's?"

Elizabeth nodded and pulled the cup out of her pocket. "He's used something from Slytherin and Hufflepuff. I'm guessing that the second-to-last thing is something from Ravenclaw."

"Second-to-last?"

"Nagini," Elizabeth said. "The last thing is the snake. He's going to keep it close."

Severus looked like someone had stabbed him in the chest, but before he could respond, the portrait of Albus Dumbledore spoke. "Severus." And then it swung open.

"The sword!" Elizabeth said, dashing forward to grab the glittering object from the niche behind the portrait. "You've had it all the time?"

"I didn't know it was there," Severus said, glaring at the portrait as it swung closed.

Elizabeth put the cup on the desk and raised the sword. "One more down," she said, slashing the goblin-made weapon down, shattering the cup in a single blow. Ignoring the scream that came from the cup, she pointed her wand at piece of blank parchment on Severus' desk.

When the paper had been transfigured into a scabbard-of-sorts, Elizabeth put it around her waist and shoved the sword into it. "One more. But I've got to find it first."

"Elizabeth—

"Dad, he wants to kill you," Elizabeth said. "Please go into the Room of Requirement. Stay there at least until we've destroyed the last item. We'll deal with Nagini later."

"Severus, it's time," Dumbledore said from his portrait.

"No, it isn't, stupid old man," Severus snapped.

"Dad!" Elizabeth looked at him.

"Take your cloak, find the item. Then come back. He won't be able to get in here if I don't want him to."

"Severus…"

"Shut up, or I'll paint over you," Severus growled.

Elizabeth thought about arguing, but decided she didn't have time. "Don't leave," she told him. "I'll be back as soon as I can." She hugged him hard and ran out the door.


	16. Wrenched Apart

When she reached the Room of Requirement, Fred, George, and Ron were standing around Ginny, who was sitting in a chair. "Where do Mum and Dad think you are?" Fred asked.

"They sent me to Bill and Fleur's," Ginny answered, glaring at the ring of redheads.

"And why didn't you stay there?" George asked, crossing his arms.

"I just came this morning," Ginny said, looking at her shoes.

"Try again, little sister," Fred frowned. "I was just there and I think I would have noticed you."

"Well…"

"Where does Bill think you are?" Ron asked.

"With Charlie."

"And Charlie...?"

Ginny shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere when my friends need me." She looked at Elizabeth. "Back me up here, Elizabeth."

"I can only fight with one Weasley brother at a time," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "And we don't have time now anyway. Okay!" She shouted, climbing up on the nearest table.

All the noise ceased. Fred, Ron, and Hermione stood in front of her on the floor. "There's something we need to find," she said. "Something that will help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?"

She looked hopefully toward the little group of Ravenclaws, and it was Cho that answered.

"Well, there's her lost diadem."

"Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is _lost_, Cho. That's sort of the point."

"No one knows where it is?" Elizabeth asked.

"There's a stone version on the statue in our common room," Cho said. "I could take you."

Elizabeth nodded. "Let's go."

"I'll go with you," Fred said, shaking out the Cloak.

"Fred—

"Betsy," Fred locked eyes with her. They were silent for a moment, and an understanding seemed to pass between them.

"Before we go," Elizabeth said. "Everyone with a corporeal patronus, send word to as many Order members as possible."

There were several people who took out their wands. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as Fred brandished his. "I thought you'd lost yours."

Elizabeth had a flashback to the time Fred had last tried to cast his Patronus and failed. She'd worried for weeks, concerned that he didn't have anything to be happy about.

"It's back," Fred shrugged, pointing his wand at the door and incanting the charm.

A silver weasel sprung from the end of his wand and dashed off.

"A weasel," Elizabeth nodded. "Like your dad's."

Fred shook his head. "The weasel is the only animal a basilisk cannot resist, according to legend." He looked at her sheepishly. "I really am sorry, Betsy."

Elizabeth sighed. "We have to go right now. If you're coming, get under the cloak."

*S*S*

They never made it to the Ravenclaw common room. As they exited the room of requirement, a figure rounded the corner, slamming into their invisible mass. Alecto Carrow shrieked as the cloak slipped off, exposing Fred's foot. Elizabeth's scar burned savagely.

She tried to grab at Fred and the cloak at the same time, but Alecto Carrow's wand was pointed at Fred's ankle, dragging him out from under their cover.

"Weasley," Alecto cackled, rolling up her sleeve. "Where is Evans?"

"How should I know?" Fred sneered at the Death Eater.

"Everyone knows you've got your leg over her," Alecto said crudely. "Snape's little tart."

Fred got to his feet and drew his wand.

"You might as well put that away," Carrow smiled wickedly. "You won't need it in a minute."

Fred tried to stun the professor, but Alecto struck first, bringing him to the ground where he writhed under the influence of the Cruciatus Curse.

That was enough for Elizabeth. Throwing off the cloak, she stood. "Leave him alone!"

"Ah, there she is," Carrow broke the curse and turned her attention to the snake branded into her forearm. She pressed her finger to the Mark, and Elizabeth's scar flamed. "The Dark Lord will be pleased to see you."

Fred staggered to his feet and Carrow hit him again, driving him to his knees.

Elizabeth brandished her own wand. "_Crucio!"_

The Death Eater was lifted off her feet. She writhed through the air like a drowning woman, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, she smashed into a window and crumbled, insensible, to the floor.

"Betsy," Fred stood again, looking at the unconscious Death Eater. "Merlin. When are you going to learn to run?"

"He's coming," Elizabeth said. "And she was hurting you."

"Elizabeth!" Severus came running down the hall. "He knows."

"I know," Elizabeth said. "But Dad, we have to find Ravenclaw's Diadem. You have to hold him off."

Severus nodded and waved his wand, sending several Patronuses in every direction. Then he pointed his wand at his throat. "Attention students," he said, his voice amplified throughout the castle. "All students who are of age, report to the Great Hall. All underage students, report to Professor McGonagall's office immediately."

Elizabeth nodded. "Thanks, Dad."

"Elizabeth," Severus put his hand on the side of her face for a moment. "I love you. Forever."

"I love you too, Dad," Elizabeth nodded.

"I need you,,," Severus took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. "I need you to look at me right now, do you understand?"

Elizabeth nodded and met his eyes, dropping the defenses she'd worked so hard to build.

_She was standing in Dumbledore's office. Albus was at his desk, his wounded hand lying on the wooden surface. Severus stood to the side, looking agitated._

_"There will be a time, after my death, that you will need to tell your daughter the truth. I hoped that you would be telling her as a teacher, perhaps even as an enemy. It would have been better for both of you." Dumbledore said._

_"__What__ truth?" Severus snapped._

_"If there comes a time when Lord Voldemort stops sending his snake forth to do his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him under magical protection, then you must tell her."_

_Elizabeth felt uneasy. How had Dumbledore known?_

_"Tell. Her. What?"_

_Dumbledore took a deep breath. "Tell her that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill her, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort. A fragment of Voldemort lives inside Elizabeth, and it is that which gives her the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with Lord Voldemort's mind that she has never understood. And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by your daughter, Lord Voldemort cannot die."_

_Elizabeth stopped breathing for a moment. Not because she hadn't suspected. The prophecy might have been unclear, but it certainly entertained the possibility. She'd known for years that she might not survive this. _

_She stopped breathing because of the look of pain-filled rage that passed on her father's face. "You have kept her alive so that she can die at the right moment?" He rasped, stepping toward Dumbledore with more malice than Elizabeth had ever seen._

_"Voldemort himself must do it," Albus went on._

_"You've used her," Severus shouted. "Used us!"_

Elizabeth pulled herself out of the memory, dragging her mind from his, finding herself with her eyes locked on Snape's.

"Is that why we stopped having Occlumency lessons?" Elizabeth said finally. "Because there's a piece of him in my head?"

Severus pressed his lips together. "That's all you have to say?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I've always known I might not make it through this, Dad. This just confirms it."

"It doesn't mean anything—

"Dad, he's keeping Nagini close," Elizabeth shook her head and started to say something else, but she was cut off by pounding feet down the corridor.

"Severus!" All the Weasleys, aside from Ginny, Ron, and Fred, came running toward them. Fluer and Remus were right behind. Just then, George appeared from the Room of Requirement.

"Ginny won't go," he said.

"My whole family's here," Ginny said, coming out of the room as well, tears sparkling in her eyes. "I'm not leaving."

"You're underage," Severus said calmly. "You have to go home."

"He's right, Ginny," Bill said gently. "You can't be here. Everyone underage will have to leave."

"Then you'll have to stun me," Ginny challenged, crossing her arms over her chest.

The Room and Requirement opened again, and this time Percy Weasley stumbled out into the corridor. It had been so long since Elizabeth had seen him, she hadn't even noticed that he was missing from the knot of Weasleys.

"I was a fool!" Percy gasped. "I was an idiot, a pompous prat, and I was a…"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," supplied Fred.

Percy swallowed. "Yes."

"Well, you can't say it fairer than that," Fred said, holding out his hand to Percy.

Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.

"I'm sorry, Dad," Percy whispered.

Mr. Weasley said nothing, just put his arms around his wife and his son.

"So," Percy looked at Fleur, "You're my sister-in-law now?" He looked at Elizabeth. "And you're going to be. I'm… I'm really sorry, Elizabeth. I never meant for you to find that note—

"It's okay," Elizabeth brushed it off. "We have to go now."

Bill, George, Fleur, and Percy hurried off toward the staircase.

"Ginny!" barked Mrs. Weasley, as her daughter tried to sneak upstairs too.

"Molly, why doesn't Ginny stay here," Lupin said. "She'll be on the scene but out of the fighting."

"That's a good idea," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "Ginny, you stay in that room, you hear me?" He pointed to the Room of Requirement.

Ginny did not seem to like the idea much, but under her father's unusually stern gaze, she nodded.

"Everyone else to the Great Hall," Severus said. "We've got to reinforce our defenses if we've any hope—

He was cut off by a different voice that echoed the hallways. It was high, cold, and clear.

"I know that you are preparing to fight." The group stood still, staring at each other. "Your efforts are futile," continued the voice. "You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Severus," Snape closed his eyes at the sound of the voice speaking his name, "you know you cannot fight me. Do not make me kill another member of your family."

"Give me Elizabeth Evans," said Voldemort's voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Elizabeth Evans, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Elizabeth Evans, and you will be rewarded. Bring yourself back into the fold, Severus. Give me your daughter. You have until midnight."

Silence swallowed them all again. Severus opened his eyes. "I'm sending the Slytherins home."

"Dad, we've got some—

Snape held up a hand and shook his head. "They are valuable only as hostages in this moment, and we will not use them as such. Let's go."

When the reached the Great Hall, Kingsley was already there, standing on the dais. "We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast! A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and Snape are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers. Meanwhile, Remus, Arthur, and I will take groups onto the grounds. We'll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances of the passageways into the school—

"Sounds like a job for us," George called, pointing at Fred.

"George—" Fred started.

"Go," Elizabeth said. "This is the time we talked about. When we would have to put this above us." She kissed him and the twins took off out the doors.

"Elizabeth," Severus said. "Aren't you supposed to be looking?"

"Right," Elizabeth nodded and looked around.

The Diadem hadn't been seen. It was lost. But it had to have been seen at some point, or it wouldn't be a legend…

"Nick!" Elizabeth turned to the Gryffindor table where Nearly-Headless Nick was floating around. "Nick, you've got to help me."

"Anything, My dear girl."

"Who's the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower?"

"The Gray Lady, of course; but if it is ghostly services you require—

"It's got to be her; do you know where she is?"

"Let's see…" Nick's head wobbled a little off his neck as he turned back and forth, peering over the heads of the swarming students.

"That's her over there, Elizabeth, the young woman with the long hair."

Elizabeth looked in the direction of Nick's transparent, pointing finger and saw a tall ghost who caught sight of Elizabeth looking at her, raised her eyebrows, and drifted away through a solid wall.

Elizabeth ran after her. Once through the door of the corridor into which she had disappeared, she saw the ghost at the very end of the passage, still gliding smoothly away.

"Hey! Wait! Come back!"

The Gray Lady consented to pause, floating a few inches from the ground. Elizabeth supposed that the woman was beautiful, but she hardly had time to think of such things.

"You're the Gray Lady?"

She nodded, but did not speak.

"The ghost of Ravenclaw Tower?"

"That is correct."

Her tone was not encouraging.

"Please, I need some help. I need to know anything you can tell me about the lost diadem."

A cold smile curved her lips.

"I am afraid," she said, turning to leave, "that I cannot help you."

"WAIT!" Elizabeth glanced at her watch. It was a quarter to midnight.

"This is urgent," she said fiercely. "If that diadem's at Hogwarts, I've got to find it, fast."

"You are hardly the first student to covet the diadem," the Gray Lady said disdainfully. "Generations of students have badgered me—

"This isn't about trying to get better marks!" Elizabeth shouted. "It's about Voldemort, defeating Voldemort, or aren't you interested in that?"

The Gray Lady's voice was heated as she replied, "Of course I… how dare you suggest…"

"Well, help me then!"

"The diadem bestows wisdom," the ghost said. "I doubt that it would greatly increase your chances of defeating the wizard who calls himself Lord—

"Haven't I just told you, I'm not interested in wearing it! Do I look like a princess?" Elizabeth snapped. "There's no time to explain, but if you care about Hogwarts, if you want to see Voldemort finished, you've got to tell me anything you know about the diadem!"

The Ravenclaw ghost remained quite still, floating in midair, starting down at Elizabeth.

"I stole the diadem from my mother."

"You… you what?"

"I stole the diadem," Helena Ravenclaw repeated. "I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother. I ran away with it. They say that she never admitted it was gone." The ghost paused. "My mother sent a man to look for me, but when I heard him coming, I concealed it inside a hollow tree in a forest in Albania."

"Albania…" Elizabeth repeated, the story becoming clearer and then muddier in her mind. "You've already told someone this story, haven't you? Another student?"

The ghost closed her eyes and nodded. "He was flattering… he seemed to sympathize…"

Yes, Elizabeth thought, Tom Riddle would certainly have understood the ghost's desire to possess such an object.

So the diadem was still missing. There was no way that Voldemort had returned it to a mere tree. She already knew that it had to be in the castle, because that is where Voldemort was coming to claim it. But when had Voldemort been in Hogwarts?

Then a thought struck her. Tom Riddle hid the diadem where Hogwarts students had been hiding things for centuries. The Room of Requirement.

The room was empty except for three women: Ginny, Tonks, and a woman Elizabeth recognized as Neville's grandmother.

"Everyone needs to get out of here," Elizabeth said, pointing at the door. "The room's got to transform."

The women took off, Ginny looking pleased to escape her prison. "But you have to come back," Elizabeth called after the youngest Weasley. "Fred'll never forgive me if you don't."

Elizabeth followed them outside the room and then turned back toward the wall. _I need the place where everything is hidden_, Elizabeth begged in her head, and the door materialized in front of her.

The castle shook, and Elizabeth dimly heard a voice that sounded like Hagrid's before ducking inside.

She ran through the aisles, looking desperately until she found it. A pockmarked stone warlock wearing a dusty old wig and what looked like an ancient, discolored tiara.

Elizabeth yanked the sword out of its sheath and swung it, smashing the tiara and the bust. A bloodlike substance leaked out of the pieces. Turning, Elizabeth ran out into the corridor again, coming face to face with the unmistakable noises of dueling.

Percy and George had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men.

Elizabeth ran forward to help, and Ron and Hermione came in from the other side. Jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast. Then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair—

"Hello, Minister," said Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"

"You're joking, Perce!" shouted George as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. George looked at Percy with glee.

"You actually are joking! I don't think I've heard you joke since you were—

The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Elizabeth, Ron, Hermione, George, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was wrenched apart. Elizabeth felt herself flying through the air, and all she could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was her one and only weapon, and shield her head in her arms. She heard the screams and yells of her companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them.

And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: She was buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told her hat the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on her cheek told her that she was bleeding copiously. Then she heard a terrible cry that pulled at her insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and she stood up, swaying, more frightened than she had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than she had been in her life.

"No— No— No!" someone was shouting. "No! George! No!"

And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and George's eyes, looking suddenly to Elizabeth like Fred's, stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.


	17. The Close

Elizabeth did not care for the body double of the love of her life to be lying on the ground, unresponsive. It ripped at her heart in a way she never thought was possible. She watched the proceedings as if in slow motion, Percy throwing himself over his brother's body to shield him from the curses that were being fired through the hole in the wall. Ron, on his knees, his face streaked with tears that tracked through the grime that seemed to coat all of their skin.

"Percy," Elizabeth begged, pulling Hermione to the ground beside her. "Percy, we've got to move."

Ron took his brother by the shoulders and pulled, but Percy would not budge. "Percy, you can't do anything for him! We're going to—

Hermione screamed, and Elizabeth, turning, saw a massive spider trying to climb through the hole in the wall.

Elizabeth and Ron cast a spell in unison; their spells collided and the monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly before falling to the dark ground below. Elizabeth raced to the edge and looked down. More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building. Elizabeth fired Stunning Spells down upon them, forcing them back.

"We've got to move. NOW!" Hermione yelled.

"Wait," Elizabeth said, pointing her wand at a piece of loose parchment, blasted out of one of the classrooms, and transfigured it into a white sheet. She knelt and wrapped George in it before levitating him into a niche in the wall. She cast protective spells around the body, before turning back to the group. "Alright," she nodded. "Let's finish this."

Percy ran off, ready to kill anything to avenge his fallen brother. Ron went to go after him, but Hermione yanked him back. "Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please Ron!" She shook him, but his eyes were murderous, his body shaking with rage and grief.

"Ron, we've got to kill the snake," Elizabeth said. "We will fight. We'll have to, to reach the snake. But we have to get to her. We're the only ones who know how to end this."

Ron looked at her. "You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Elizabeth. Look inside him!"

Elizabeth closed her eyes and did what she'd never attempted to do. She entered Voldemort's thoughts voluntarily.

He was standing in the middle of a desolate but strangely familiar room, with peeling paper on the walls and all the windows boarded except for one. The sounds of the assault on the castle were muffled and distant. The single unblocked window revealed distant bursts of light where the castle stood, but inside the room it was dark except for a solitary oil lamp.

He was rolling his wand between his fingers, watching it, his thoughts on the room in the castle, the secret room only he had ever found, like the Chamber, that you had to be clever and cunning to discover… He was confident that the girl would not find the diadem. Although, Snape's mudblood-spawn had come much farther than he had ever expected.

"My Lord," said a voice, desperate and cracked. He turned, seeing Lucius Malfoy sitting in the darkest corner, ragged and still bearing the marks of the punishment he had received after the girl's last escape. One of his eyes remained closed the puffy. "My Lord…please…my son…"

"If your son is dead, Lucius, it is not my fault. He did not come and join me, like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Elizabeth Evans?"

"No, never."

"You must hope not," Voldemort sneered. "But he was close to Snape, wasn't he? Clearly your whole family's loyalty is suspect."

"Wouldn't it be more prudent, My Lord, to call off this battle? Seek out Evans yourself? Assure that she dies at your hand?"

"Do not pretend, Lucius. You wish the battle to cease so that you can discover what has happened to your son. And I do not need to seek Evans. Before the night is out, she will have come to find me." A sense of excitement surged through his body. "But if you wish to expedite the process, go and fetch Snape."

"Snape, my Lord?"

"Snape. There is a service I require from him. Go."

Elizabeth pulled back and opened her eyes, at the same moment she was assaulted by the sounds of the battle.

"He's in the Shrieking Shack. He's just sent Malfoy to find my dad."

*S*S*

Elizabeth wriggled into the earthy passage hidden in the tree's roots. It was a much tighter squeeze than the last time she had entered it. As a flat-chested third year she'd been able to slide right in. Her new body posed significant challenges.

The room beyond was dimly lit, but she could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere. Elizabeth could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand. She raised her head, careful not to uncover herself. A disembodied foot wouldn't be a good thing.

"I'd offer you tea, Severus," Voldemort's voice was chilling, even after hearing it over and over. "However, that's hardly a last meal, is it?"

"You might as well kill me now," Severus said, his voice tight. "I won't call her."

"She'll come on her own," Voldemort said. "Your presence here has another purpose." He rolled his wand back and forth between his fingers. "I have a problem, Severus."

Severus was silent.

Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton. "Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

"You've spilled enough blood with that wand," Severus said.

"No," Voldemort said. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand… no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago." Voldemort's voice was calm. "I took the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave. But it has failed me. Why?"

Severus did not answer.

"Perhaps you already know. You are a clever man, after all. You could have been so valuable to me, had you been properly chastised for your betrayal." Voldemort paused. "The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not is true master. The Elder wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine."

Elizabeth closed her eyes and cast a silent spell. _Protego Maxima_ she thought, pushing a barrier between her father and the Dark Lord.

Voldemort pointed his wand at Nagini's magical ball of protection. "Kill," he hissed, and the ball floated toward Severus.

It was then, as never before, that Elizabeth saw her father for what he was. A warrior. He stood, unflinching, as the ball floated within a yard of his face. "I regret only that I won't see my daughter end you," he said calmly. "And as you die, I'd like you to remember that it is her mother's blood that runs through her veins."

Nagini's bubble made contact with the shield Elizabeth had erected. The explosion was deafening. The sphere of protection around the snake shattered, and Nagini fell to the floor. Voldemort swore loudly, spinning around, searching for who could have cast the spell, then looked back to Severus. "Kill me, Severus. If you're going to wordlessly cast a spell, at least make it count."

Elizabeth pointed her wand at the massive snake. She couldn't kill it with a spell. It wouldn't destroy the Horcrux. The protection over Severus would only last for a little while longer, and with the Elder Wand, Snape stood little chance of making it out of the Shrieking Shack alive.

She desperately wished that she could get him to Apparate. To get away.

Malfoy appeared in the shack. "We've killed the your son-in-law, Snape."

"Good," Voldemort said, his wand still pointed at Severus. "That alone should make your brat reckless."

Elizabeth took a deep breath. It was time. If she was lucky, she could kill Nagini before she died. But even if she didn't, Severus knew that Nagini needed to die.

The long game was ended, the Snitch had been caught. It was time to fulfill her destiny.

The Snitch. Her nerveless fingers fumbled for a moment with the pouch around her neck and pulled it out.

_I open at the close._

Breathing fast and hard, she stared down at it. Now that she wanted time to move as slowly as possible, it seemed to have sped up. This was the close. This was the moment.

She pressed the golden metal to her lips and whispered, "I am about to die."

The metal shell broke open.

The black stone with its jagged crack running down the center sat in two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible.

She understood without having to think. It didn't matter about bringing them back, for she was about to join them. She was not really fetching them: They were fetching her. She looked at Lucius. _We've killed your son-in-law_. There was a moment she was glad. Fred would not have to live without George, and she would be joining him soon. She nodded to herself. She was going home. To be with him. Forever.

She stood, still under the cloak, and turned the stone over in her hand.

They were neither ghost nor truly flesh; she could see that. James was taller than her. And Fred… no, not Fred. It was George. George had come to meet her. Why was that? Was she not to be surrounded by the people she loved the most?

And suddenly she saw Tonks, her hair white, standing beside George.

And Lily. She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to her daughter, and her green eyes, searched Elizabeth's face.

"You've been so brave."

Elizabeth could not speak.

"You're nearly there," said James. "Very close. You've been… you're so much bigger than last time I saw you."

It was such an odd thing to say under the circumstances that Elizabeth almost laughed.

"Does it hurt?" Elizabeth couldn't stop the question from falling out of her mouth.

"Dying?" George grinned. "Not at all, little sister. Easier than falling asleep."

"And he will want it to be quick. He wants it over," said Tonks.

"I'm so sorry, Tonks," Elizabeth said quietly. "Right after Teddy—

"He'll have Remus," Tonks said gently. "And Severus, if he gets his arse out of here," she looked at the rest of the Shack. It seemed frozen, like they were in a bubble of time all alone.

"You'll stay with me?"

"Until the very end," another voice said, and Elizabeth turned to see Sirius standing beside James. "Until the very end. I promise."

"Sirius…" Elizabeth bit her lip. "Sirius…"

"No regrets, sweetheart," Sirius shook his head. "We're going to end this now, standing together. You show me what I taught you, now."

Elizabeth nodded, blinking back tears. "I'll make you proud."

Black smiled. "You couldn't make me anything else, beautiful."

"They won't be able to see you?"

"We're part of you," Lily said. "Invisible to anyone else." She looked at Severus. "He looks tired."

Elizabeth nodded. "He's had a bit on his mind." She took a final deep breath. "Stay close to me."

She drew her sword. And pulled off the cloak. She slashed the blade down, but it struck only stone. Nagini was pulled roughly toward Voldemort.

"Elizabeth Evans," Voldemort said very softly. "The Girl Who Lived."

Elizabeth stood, raising her chin like her father's.

She saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.

*S*S*

There was a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat in the pure white King's Cross she'd fallen into.

She was afraid of it. Nevertheless she drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment. Soon she stood near enough to touch it, yet she could not bring herself to do it.

"You cannot help."

She spun around. Albus Dumbledore was walking toward her, sprightly and upright. Perhaps a hundred years younger than he'd been when he died.

"Elizabeth." He spread his arms wide. "You wonderful girl. You brave, brave woman."

"You're dead," Elizabeth said quietly.

"Oh yes," said Dumbledore.

"And I am dead."

"Well, that's not necessarily true," Albus said conversationally.

"No?" Elizabeth frowned. "But I should have died. I meant to let him kill me." She brushed her hand over her forehead, surprised by the lack of pain.

"That, I think, have made all the difference," Dumbledore said. "But you, my lovely warrior, are not the traditional sacrificial lamb."

"Explain," Elizabeth said shortly.

"But you already know," said Dumbledore.

"I let him kill me," said Elizabeth. "Didn't I?"

"You did. Go on."

"So the part of his soul that was me… is gone?"

"Oh yes," Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, he destroyed it. Your soul is whole, Elizabeth, and completely your own."

"But then…" Elizabeth looked at the small creature. "What is that?"

"Something that is beyond our help," said Dumbledore.

"But if Voldemort used the Killing Curse," Elizabeth started again, "and nobody died for me this time, at least in that moment… how can I be alive?"

"I think you know," said Dumbledore. "Think back. Remember what he did, in his ignorance, in his greed and his cruelty."

Elizabeth thought back, her gaze wandering.

"He took my blood. In the graveyard."

"Precisely!" Albus smiled as if she'd just earned an OWL. "Your blood is in his veins. Lily's protection is inside both of you. He tethered you to life while he lives!"

"I thought we both had to die."

Dumbledore smiled wider. "You were the seventh Horcrux, Elizabeth. The Horcrux he never meant to make. He had rendered his soul so unstable that it broke apart when he committed those acts of unspeakable evil. The murder of your mother, the attempted killing of a child. But what escaped from that room was even less than he knew. He left more than his body behind. He left part of himself latched to you, the would-be victim who had survived."

"And you knew this? You knew all along?"

"I guessed," Dumbledore said happily.

"There's more," Elizabeth said. "There's more to it. Why do I always win?"

"I cannot be sure."

"Take a guess, then," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"That, my dear, I can only attribute to your father's blood," Dumbledore smiled again. "What chance did Voldemort have with that much self-sacrificing courage staring him in the face? Voldemort, who would never have sacrificed himself for another, has watched you do it over and over again."

"He killed me with your wand."

"He failed to kill you with my wand," Dumbledore corrected. "I think we can agree that you are not dead. Although I'm sure your passage was not without suffering."

"Well, the whole knowing my father was watching me die thing was rough," Elizabeth muttered. She looked up at the wizard. "You meant Dad to end up with the Elder Wand, didn't you?"

Albus nodded once. "A better master it could not have, don't you agree?"

"But it didn't work out," Elizabeth sighed. "You want me to go back, don't you." It was not a question.

"I think," Dumbledore said, "that if you choose to return, there is chance that he may be finished for good."

"And I suppose, if he kills me again, it wouldn't be as bad. Death is probably something you get used to."

Dumbledore chuckled. "You have less to fear returning here than Voldemort does, my child."

"If you see Fred," Elizabeth said, swallowing hard, "tell him… I'll be back soon."

*S*S*

"Examine your daughter, Snape. Tell me whether she is dead."

Elizabeth felt a hand on her face, then one on her chest. She knew that Severus could feel the steady pounding of life against her ribs.

"She's dead," Severus said softly.

Voldemort laughed a cold, high laugh. "Carry her, Severus, to the castle. I want to them to see their little savior dead by my hand.

Elizabeth felt her father gather her to his chest. Voldemort's icy hand clamped onto Severus' wrist and they Apparated to the doors of the castle.

"Put her down," Voldemort ordered Snape. Elizabeth felt him put her down gently, into the dirt.

"Elizabeth Evans is dead by my hand, and no man alive can threaten me now! Watch!" Voldemort shouted to what Elizabeth could only assume was a crowd of onlookers. "_Crucio_!"

She knew her body would not be allowed to remain unsullied. It must be subjected to humiliation. She was lifted into the air, and it took all her determination to remain limp. Yet the pain she expected did not come. She was thrown once, twice, three times into the air. When she fell to the ground for the last time, the crowd responded with jeers and shrieks of laughter.

"Pick up your hero, Severus," Voldemort cackled. "We must show the people of Hogwarts what their rebellion has come to." Elizabeth felt herself being picked up again, and then a lurch as Severus stumbled. Had Professor Snape ever stumbled?

Voldemort's voice boomed, magically magnified once more. "Elizabeth Evans is dead. She was killed as she ran away, trying to save herself while you lay down your lives for her. We bring you her body as proof that your hero is gone. The battle is won. Those who continue to resist will be slaughtered. Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared."

"NO!"

The scream was more terrible because she had never expected or dreamed that Minerva could make such a sound.

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth!"

Ron's and Hermione's voices were terrible, yet Elizabeth's heart leaped in knowing that they were still alive.

"SILENCE!" Voldemort intoned. "It is over. Set her at my feet, Severus, where she belongs!"

When she was on the ground, she eased her eyes open slightly, just enough to see the crowd. She saw a figure break free of the crowd and charge Voldemort. The figure hit the ground, disarmed, and Voldemort threw the challenger's wand aside.

"And who is this?" he said in his soft snake's hiss. "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?

Bellatrix gave a cruel laugh. "It's the Weasley who wanted to breed with Evans, my Lord!"

"Ah." Elizabeth heard Lucius Malfoy cry out as the Dark Lord released his displeasure. "I don't appreciate being lied to, Malfoy."

Voldemort turned his attention to Fred. "But you are a pureblood, aren't you, my brave boy?"

"So what if I am?" Fred's voice was clear and rebellious- the sound of a man that had nothing left to lose.

"You show spirit and bravery, and you come for noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. Your parents have denied you the power that should have come with your blood."

"I'll join you when hell freezes over," Fred spat.

"Very well," said Voldemort, and Elizabeth heard the danger in the silkiness of his voice. It was like Severus right before he went mental. "If that is your choice, Weasley, we revert to the original plan."

Voldemort waved his wand. Seconds later, out of one of the castle's shattered windows, something that looked like a misshapen bird flew through the rising sun. Was the run really rising? Had this only been one night?

Voldemort caught the item and held it by one corner. The Sorting Hat.

"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts School," said Voldemort. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won't they, Fred Weasley?"

He pointed his wand at Fred, freezing him, before forcing the hat onto his head.

"Fred is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," said Voldemort, and with a flick of his wand, he caused the Sorting Hat to burst into flames.

It was then, in that awful moment, that everything changed. Grawp, Hagrid's brother, appeared around the side of the castle, leading with him an army of centaurs.

In one swift, fluid motion, Fred broke free of the Body-Bind Curse upon him; the flaming hat fell off him, and he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle—

It was then that Elizabeth remembered dropping the sword to the ground after she'd failed to kill Nagini.

The slash of the silver blade would not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd or the sounds of the clashing giants, and yet it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke, Fred sliced off the great snake's head, which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the entrance hall, and Voldemort's mouth was open in a scream of fury that nobody would hear.

Elizabeth pulled the invisibility cloak from inside her robes and swung it over herself. She stood, casting a Shield Charm between Fred and Voldemort.

Elizabeth raced into the castle, following Voldemort as he backed into the Great Hall. The room was full. Elizabeth spotted Charlie Weasley, dueling with Yaxley. Molly Weasley had Bellatrix backed into a corner and was shouting some things that Elizabeth wasn't sure her future mother-in-law was capable of. Then the redheaded witch's curse soared through the air and hit the Death Eater squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.

"That was for my son," Molly hissed as the woman fell forward, hitting the floor, lifeless.

Elizabeth saw Voldemort raise his wand, pointing it directly at Mrs. Weasley.

"_Protego!"_ shouted Elizabeth, and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall. She pulled the cloak off, jamming it back into her robes.

"She's alive!"

"Elizabeth!"

Then there was silence. Elizabeth and Voldemort faced each other across the room as the rest of the fighters formed a ring around them, like students in a schoolyard fight.

"I don't want anyone else to try to help," Elizabeth said loudly. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Fred, being held back by Severus, who was being held back by Remus.

Voldemort hissed. "Evans doesn't mean that," he said. "That isn't how she works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Evans?"

"Nobody," Elizabeth said simply. "These are no more Horcruxes. It's just you can me. Neither can live while the other survives, remember? And one of us is about to leave for good." She took a step forward. "You won't be killing anyone else tonight," she said, falling into circling with the Dark Lord. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people—

"But you did not!"

Elizabeth fixed him with her best Snape stare. "If you'd let me finish, Tom, this would go faster. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Didn't you notice that the fire didn't burn Fred? That he didn't stay frozen? That you tried to torture my lifeless body and I felt no pain?" She clicked her tongue. "Honestly, Riddle, learn from your mistakes."

"You dare—

"I do," Elizabeth nodded. "I know things you don't know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don't. Want to hear some?"

Voldemort growled and prowled in a circle. "You must believe that you have magic that I do not, or else a weapon more powerful than mine?"

"I believe both," Elizabeth said, standing straighter. "I have my mother's sacrifice coursing through my body, and my father's courage. The very fiber of my being knows nothing else but defiance toward you."

"I hold the Elder Wand," Voldemort crowed. "And now, I'll kill it's master and then kill you," he swung his wand toward Severus.

"He's not the master," Elizabeth said calmly, not needing to look to know that the crowd was protecting her father. "He was the true master. But someone disarmed him."

"You lie!" Voldemort hissed, turning back to her.

"Maybe," Elizabeth shrugged. "But at Malfoy Manor, the night I defeated three of your Death Eaters and escaped, I disarmed Severus Snape as he came through the door, thinking he was you."

The room was silent.

"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" Elizabeth whispered. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does… I am the true master of the Elder Wand."

The end of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. Elizabeth heard the high voice shriek as she too yelled her best hope to the heavens, pointing her mother's wand:

"_Avada Kedavra!"_

"_Expelliarmus!"_

Elizabeth saw Voldemort's green jet meet her own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling, spinning through the air toward its master. Elizabeth, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in her free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward.

Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse. Elizabeth stood with two wands in her hand, staring down at her enemy's shell.

*S*S*

Fourteen Years Later

"Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

Elizabeth Weasley rolled over and poked her husband in the shoulder. "I think your son wants you."

Fred snorted. "He is clearly calling your name."

"I don't have a name before seven," Elizabeth said, burying her face in her pillow.

Fred pushed himself up on his elbows to look at the clock and barked a laugh. "7:02," he said, falling back down. "You lose."

"Mummy? Mummy?"

"Come in, baby," Elizabeth called.

"Gramma is here."

Elizabeth sat up, looking from Fred to the four-year-old on the floor. "Where, Orion?"

"Kitchen," Orion said affably. "She says no cookies."

Elizabeth groaned. "Why is your mother here this early?"

"She has a grandchild addiction," Fred said, sitting up again. "Orion, go wake up the big girls."

"Georgia bit me," Orion said, holding up his hand.

"Never mind," Fred sighed. "I'll get them." He put his feet into slippers and pulled a t-shirt over his head.

"Come on, munchkin," Elizabeth said ruffling Orion's dark mop of hair. "Let's go get Lily, okay?"

Fred knocked on the bedroom door at the end of the hall. "Time to get up, girls."

"Go away, Dad!"

Fred smirked. Georgia was feisty on her best day, and her best day did not include a premature wake up call. He opened the door, looking at the twin beds, each hosting a curly red head.

Fred steered clear of Georgia, the biting was not something to play with. Instead he sat down on the other bed and stroked the buried head.

"Sevannah," he said gently, shaking her shoulder a bit. "It's a big day, love. Time to get up."

Sevannah rolled over and opened her brown eyes. "Hi, Daddy."

Fred smiled, and looked over at the other bed. "Georgia Ann. Up."

The covers moved, and a Sevannah look-alike popped out. "Is Grandpa here yet?"

Fred shook his head. "Grandma's here to take Orion and Lily for the day. Grandpa will be here later."

Georgia hopped out of bed and stretched. "I'm hungry," the eleven-year-old declared.

"Go downstairs, I'm sure Grandma is making breakfast."

He watched the girl run out of the room before turning to his other twin. "You're quiet this morning, thinker." It wasn't unusual. Sevannah had inherited her namesake's quiet manner.

"I don't think I should go to Hogwarts," Sevannah said, pulling the blankets around her.

"Hmmm," Fred said, pretending to contemplate the idea. "Alright, but you understand that I can't feed you during the school year, right? It's not in the budget."

Sevannah rolled her eyes. "Daddy!"

"Are you scared?" Fred asked, brushing her hair off her forehead.

"No," Sevannah said indignantly.

"Georgia will be there," Fred said soothingly. "And Grandpa, and Uncle Remus."

Sevannah nodded. "And you will write me…"

"All the time," Fred promised. "And if you need me or Mum, we're there. Right?"

Sevannah nodded again. "Okay."

"Okay," Fred echoed. He stood up and opened his arms, pulling his little girl close to him. "I'm going to miss you, Sevannah Rose."

"Miss you too, Daddy."

*S*S*

"Hello?" Severus Snape stepped out of the floo.

In the kitchen, Elizabeth turned to Fred. "Listen, let my Dad drive to the station, okay?"

Fred grinned. "Fine by me."

"In here, Dad!" Elizabeth called. "Kretcher," she said, looking at the House Elf who was laden with winter weather gear. "It's September."

"Mistress is trying to freeze Master Orion," Kretcher grumbled. "Wants to freeze his little fingers off." He scuttled over to Orion's booster seat and began covering him with mittens, a hat, and a scarf.

Fred shook his head. His son, apparently, bore a vague resemblance to Regulus Black, something that was probably passed through the Weasley part of the family tree. From the onset, Kretcher had been the boy's biggest protector.

"Good morning," Severus said, appearing in the doorway.

"Gampa!" Lily shouted from her high chair, holding up her chubby arms.

"There's my baby," Severus beamed, scooping the redheaded, green-eyed child into his arms.

Elizabeth smirked. Sometimes Severus looked younger now than he ever had in his thirties. He held Lily on one hip and ruffled Orion's hair though his hat. "Are we taking you to Hogwarts, young man?"

"Grandpa!" Orion laughed.

"Oh, that's right," Severus nodded. "I'm going to have to wait on you. Where are my first years?"

"Getting dressed," Fred said, then dropped his voice to Elizabeth. "Sevannah is doing that thing again."

"We just have to get her on the train," Elizabeth said, putting the breakfast dishes away. "She'll be fine."

"We'll never get to the train if they don't get down here." Fred went to the foot of the stairs. "Georgia! Sevannah! Let's go!"

*S*S*

Elizabeth and Fred stood on the platform, each with a hand on the shoulder of one twin. Severus surveyed the crowd. "I think that's the rest of the Weasley clan now."

A group of four people emerged from the mist, standing alongside the very last carriage.

"Parked all right, then?" Ron asked Fred. "I did. Hermione didn't believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I'd have to Confund the examiner." He had one arm around Hugo and the other hand holding Rose's. The girl was already wearing her school robes.

"He did," Hermione whispered to Elizabeth as she hugged her. "But we'll pretend he passed it."

"Fred too, that's why Dad drove," Elizabeth whispered back.

"Georgia Ann!" Fred clicked his fingers at her and then held out his hand, palm up. "Hand them over."

Georgia rolled her eyes and handed her father four Stinky Stickers she'd been trying to stick on Rose's luggage.

"All of them," Fred said, raising an eyebrow.

Georgia gave a long-suffering sigh but handed over two more stickers. "Dad!"

"You didn't get up early enough this morning to get stuff like that by me, miss." Fred ruffled her hair.

"Mum! We're going to get a seat, alright?" Georgia said excitedly.

"Alright," Elizabeth sighed, putting her arms around her daughter. "Be good, hear me?"

"Okay," Georgia rolled her eyes. "Bye, Dad."

"Bye, Firebolt," Fred hugged her and kissed the top of her head. "Be good."

"Geez," Georgia scowled. "I'm not that bad. Come on, Sevannah."

Sevannah nodded and hugged her mother, holding on a bit too long. Fred put his arms around both of them. "We'll write every day if you want," he said, kissing her forehead. Sevannah bit her lip. "Not everyday… well… maybe at first. Bye, Daddy."

"Bye, Angel," Fred kissed her again. "Stay with Rose."

"I'll go on with them for a minute," Severus said. "Remind our upperclassmen about acceptable train behavior."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, Dad," Elizabeth smirked.

Hermione and Ron said goodbye to Rose, who was bouncing in place. "I read in _Hogwarts: A History_…" she said to Sevannah as they climbed onto the train.

Ron shook his head. "More like Hermione every day, I swear it."

Elizabeth leaned into Fred's side and let him put his arm around her.

"Three future Gryffindors," Ron continued, looking at the train.

Elizabeth sighed. "Maybe. Georgia… but you know Sevannah. What if they get separated?"

"It might be good for her," Hermione said. "Give her a place to be her own person."

"That's what Fred says," Elizabeth shook her head. "I just worry."

"I'm worried about this train ride," Fred said, glaring at the train windows. "There are entirely too many First Year boys."

"You don't need to worry about the train," Elizabeth smirked. "You didn't start chasing me until dinner."

"We're willing to do an arranged marriage type thing right now with one of your girls and Hugo," Ron laughed, ruffling his son's hair. "Except we probably don't need to keep the bloodlines that close."

"Well, he's going to have to grow a little bit to handle Georgia," Elizabeth laughed. "And Sevannah spent entirely too much time at Malfoy Manor this summer for my liking."

"Speaking of that," Fred said, nodding to a point across the platform. "Look who it is."

Draco Malfoy was standing there with his wife and son. Draco caught sight of their group and nodded curtly.

"Scorpius," Fred said under his breath. "Maybe I should encourage other boys."

"At least she'd be marrying rich," Ron joked.

"Uncle Fred," Hugo said, gesturing impatiently for his uncle to bend down to listen to him.

Fred obliged, and the eight year old whispered loudly, "We saw Teddy when we came in and he was…" Hugo's eyes widened, "_snogging Victoire_!"

He gazed up at Fred, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction.

"Teddy was _snogging a girl_!"

"Ew, gross," Fred said, realizing a little late what his reaction was supposed to be. "I'll make sure to talk to him about that."

Severus returned. "It's nearly eleven, they should be heading off soon," he said. As if he'd summoned it, smoke began to pour in earnest from the train, and the wheels began to turn.

Elizabeth waved as the train pulled away, trying to keep a smile plastered on her face while gripping Fred's waist with all her might.

"Congratulations," Severus said. "You've made it to school."

"Congratulate us when you haven't had to suspend Georgia for something this year," Fred grimaced.

"We talked to her about behavior, but I don't think she believes that you'll do anything if she doesn't behave. Please make sure—

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Elizabeth Rose, did I ever let you get away with anything at school?"

Elizabeth sighed. "No, but you're my dad, not my grandfather."

"Georgia will become well-acquainted with detention, I would imagine," Severus assured her. "Don't worry, hatchling. Between Remus and I, she won't get in too much trouble."

Elizabeth nodded, and Severus brushed a hand over her head. "I have to go. It wouldn't do for the train to beat me to school now, would it? I'll make sure the girls send an owl after the Sorting."

"Thanks, Dad," Elizabeth smiled and waved as he walked toward the Floos against the wall.

"Let's go home," Fred said, kissing her temple.

"Okay," Elizabeth said quietly. "They're going to be fine, right?"

"We made sure of it nearly twenty years ago," Fred reminded her. "And just think, we don't have to do this again until Orion is eleven."

"Maybe that's why we spaced them so wide," Elizabeth smiled, letting him lead her back toward the car.

"We spaced them out because it took us that long to recover from the twins," Fred laughed. "And then we had Lily so quickly because we didn't know what to do with only one baby."

"What were we thinking?" Elizabeth laughed too, leaning on him.

"That life worked out just fine," Fred grinned. "And it would be a shame to waste all this peace on just us."


End file.
